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EDITED  BT 

WILLIAM  T.  HARRIS,  A.M.,LL.D. 


Volume  XLI 


INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS 
FOR  ALL  TEACHERS 


BY 


JAMES  L.  HUGHES 

UfSPBCTOB  OF  SCHOOLS,  TORONTO 


"By  and  by  Froebel's  educational  law  will  be  accepted  as 
distinctly  and  independently  as  Newton's  law  of  gravitation.** 

Baronbss  Von  Marenholz-Bulow 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
D.   APPLETON    AND   COMPANY 


L 


LidnL^M? 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


Electrotyped  and  Pkinted 

AT  THE   ApPLETON   PrESS,  U.  S.  A. 


EDITOK'S  PREFACE. 


The  life  of  Friedrich  Froebel  falls  in  the  time  of 
the  great  German  movement  in  philosophy.  The  birth 
year  coincides  very  closely  with  the  publication  of  the 
epoch-making  book  of  Immanuel  Kant — The  Critique 
of  Pure  Reason.  Kant  had  broken  new  ground  for  phi- 
losophy. He  was  followed  by  three  giants,  Fichte, 
Schelling,  and  Hegel,  who  continued  his  work  and  ap- 
plied his  results  to  the  great  problems  of  philosophy, 
namely,  to  the  questions  that  relate  to  freedom,  im- 
mortality, and  the  Divine  Being.  Kant  uprooted,  or 
supposed  that  he  had  uprooted,  the  old  philosophy 
which  had  come  down  from  Plato  and  Aristotle  through 
the  schoolmen  of  the  Church.  He  thought  that  he 
had  discovered  a  sound  foundation  for  a  new  philosophy 
which  could  set  at  rest  at  least  negatively  the  ultimate 
problems  of  life.  Before  his  death,  in  1804,  he  had  seen 
applications  of  his  new  principle,  first  by  Fichte,  and 
afterward  by  Schelling — applications  of  which  he  had 
not  had  the  slightest  foreboding.  What  seemed  an  en- 
tirely new  view  of  the  world  was  projected  by  Fichte  and 
Schelling.  In  the  nature  philosophy  of  the  latter,  time 
and  space,  matter  and  motion,  gravitation  and  light, 
magnetism  and  crystallization,  plant  life  and  animal  life, 
were  "construed,"  to  use  his  technical  expression,  a^ 


47888 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


progressive  realizations  of  mind  in  the  objective  pole  of 
the  being  of  the  Absolute,  mind  being  the  subjective  pole. 
All  objects  in  nature  containing  positive  and  negative 
phases — like  the  magnet  or  electricity,  or  like  chemical 
opposites — took  on  an  interest  for  the  thinker:  they  were 
lower  orders  of  realization  or  far-off  images  of  the  Divine, 
which  was  supposed  to  have  the  form  of  mind  and  also 
to  be  the  union  of  mind  and  Nature.  Just  as  a  magnet 
has  north  and  south  poles  and  an  indifference  point,  so 
the  Absolute  is  mind  (as  the  subjective  pole)  and  nature 
(as  the  objective  pole),  and  it  is  also  the  union  or  indiffer- 
ence point  of  these  two. 

Just  about  the  time  of  Kant's  death  (in  1804)  Schell- 
ing  began  to  change  his  view  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
Absolute  as  the  indifference  point  of  the  two  poles  of 
ideality  and  reality.  He  began  to  draw  the  conclusion 
from  his  premises  that  the  Absolute  is  not  mind  but 
the  indifference  point  between  mind  and  matter.  It 
was  at  this  juncture  that  Hegel,  who  had  hitherto  been 
his  disciple,  took  final  leave  of  his  system.  Hegel  con- 
ceived the  Absolute  as  a  divine  reason,  and  nature  to 
him  seemed  to  be  the  process  by  which  the  Divine  Rea- 
son eternally  creates  infinitely  manifold  new  individuals. 

Froebel  in  the  meantime  had  become  fascinated 
with  Schelling's  first  system,  and  he,  too,  like  Hegel, 
adhered  to  the  doctrine  that  the  Absolute  is  mind.  In 
his  Education  of  Man,  published  in  1826,  he  expresses 
this  doctrine  in  the  following  oft-quoted  words:  "  In  all 
things  there  lives  and  reigns  an  eternal  law.  This  all- 
controlling  law  implies  as  its  source  an  all-pervading, 
energizing,  self-conscious,  and  hence  eternal  unity. 
This  unity  is  Go4.   From  God  all  things  have  proceeded 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 


▼u 


and  they  have  their  unity  in  the  Divine  Unity,  in  God 
alone.  The  divine  effluence  that  lives  in  each  thing  is 
the  essence  of  each  thing.  It  is  the  destiny  and  life 
work  of  all  things  to  unfold  their  essence,  or  their 
divine  being,  and  therefore  the  Divine  Unity  itself — 
to  reveal  God  in  their  external  and  transient  being." 
Hence  Froebel  interpreted  the  special  destiny  and  life 
work  of  man  "  to  become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly  con- 
scious of  his  essence,  of  the  divine  effluence  in  him,  and 
therefore  of  God;  to  become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly 
conscious  of  his  destiny  and  life  work;  and  to  accom- 
plish this,  to  render  it  (his  essence)  active,  to  reveal  it  in 
his  own  life  with  self-determination  and  freedom." 

While  Schelling  laid  great  stress  on  art  and  litera- 
ture, inasmuch  as  the  aesthetic  unity  of  mind  and  matter 
seemed  to  him  to  reach  its  highest  point  in  sculpture, 
painting,  music,  and  poetry,  Froebel,  in  this  respect, 
cHngs  closer  to  the  doctrines  of  Fichte,  which  make  the 
striving  of  the  human  will  to  realize  the  good  of  far 
more  importance  than  the  creation  of  the  beautiful. 
This  accounts  for  the  great  stress  which  Froebel  lays 
upon  natural  objects  as  the  symbols  of  the  mind.  He 
does  much  to  construct  a  scale  of  symbolic  terms  up 
which  the  mind  of  the  child  shall  mount  on  its  way  to 
clear  thinking.  All  of  the  categories  of  pure  thought 
are  used  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  but  not  in  their  purity 
— they  are  incarnated  or  embodied  in  symbols  or  men- 
tal pictures,  and  it  is  the  function  of  the  sciences  of 
arithmetic,  geometry,  grammar  and  logic,  ethics  and 
philosophy,  to  strip  off  the  sensuous  form  in  which  these 
deep  ideas  first  appear  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  and  give 
him  ability  to  use  them  as  tools  of  thought. 


vm 


FltOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


The  kindergarten  as  it  comes  from  the  hands  of 
Froebel  is  perhaps  the  most  valuable  educational  meth- 
od yet  devised  for  giving  the  child  the  first  impulse  to- 
ward clearness  of  tliinking  and  willing.  As  a  bundle 
of  feelings  he  is  not  yet  clear  either  in  his  intellect  or 
his  will.  One  side  of  his  feelings  points  toward  the  in- 
tellect and  the  other  side  points  toward  the  will.  The 
former  is  feeling  in  the  form  of  sense-perception,  the 
latter  is  in  the  form  of  desires,  passions,  and  emotions. 
When  the  child  translates  his  sensations  into  a  knowledge 
of  things  and  events  he  comes  to  his  intellect.  When  he 
stands  between  his  desires  and  his  action  and  guides  it, 
he  attains  to  will  and  is  a  moral  being. 

I  have  used  the  word  "  symbolic  "  to  describe  the 
stage  of  mind  in  which  the  child  finds  himself  at  four 
years  of  age — to  describe  the  frame  of  mind  which  feels 
the  identity  of  nature  and  mind;  it  is  a  growing  iden- 
tity rather  than  a  realized  identity,  and  in  the  stage  of 
feeling  the  child  is  supposed  to  have  intimations  of  this 
profound  unity  between  himself  and  the  unconscious 
objects  of  nature  amid  which  he  finds  himself.  I  admit 
that  the  word  "  symbol "  is  oftenest  used  in  a  narrower 
sense  than  this  and  signifies  the  employment  of  a  natural 
object  to  convey  a  spiritual  meaning.  The  philosophy 
of  Froebel  sees  that  all  objects  contain  a  kernel  of  spir- 
itual meaning,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  think  any 
phase  of  nature  without  at  the  same  time  bringing  into 
the  background  of  thought  that  spiritual  idea. 


W.  T.  Habris. 


Washington,  D.  C,  January  12^  1897. 


PREFACE. 


Many  teachers  have  failed  to  investigate  the  edu- 
cational principles  of  Froebel  because  they  believe  that 
the  founding  of  the  kindergarten  was  Froebel's  only 
educational  work,  and  that  the  methods  of  the  kinder- 
garten are  not  adapted  to  the  schoolroom.  Both  these 
opinions  are  incorrect.  The  principles  upon  which 
the  kindergarten  processes  are  based  are  fundamental 
principles  that  should  guide  the  teacher  in  the  work  of 
teaching  and  training  the  child  throughout  its  school 
course. 

The  veteran  educator  of  England,  Mr.  J.  G.  Fitch, 
in  his  able  report  on  training  schools,  made  to  the 
Education  Department  of  England  at  the  close  of  his 
long  and  honourable  career,  in  speaking  of  the  great 
advance  recently  made  in  the  primary  education  of  Eng- 
land and  Wales,  says: 

"  In  watching  the  gradual  development  of  the  train- 
ing colleges  for  women  from  year  to  year,  nothing  is 
more  striking  than  the  increased  attention  which  is  be- 
ing paid  in  those  institutions  to  the  true  principles 
of  infant  teaching  and  discipline.  The  circular  which 
has  recently  been  issued  by  your  lordships,  and  which 
is  designed  to  enforce  and  explain  these  principles, 

ix 


X 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


would,  if  put  forth  a  few  years  ago,  have  fallen  on  un- 
prepared soil,  and  would  indeed  have  seemed  to  many 
teachers  both  in  and  out  of  training  colleges  to  be 
scarcely  intelligible.  Now  its  counsels  will  be  wel- 
comed with  sympathy  and  full  appreciation.  In  almost 
every  college  a  special  course  of  lectures  is  provided  on 
the  teaching  of  Froebel  and  Pestalozzi,  and  on  the  appli- 
cation of  their  doctrines  to  the  work  of  the  infant 
school.  Whatever  is  true  and  wise  in  the  Froebelian 
and  Pcstalozzian  philosophy  is,  in  fact,  applicable  to  all 
classes  of  children  of  all  ages.  Attempts  to  treat  the 
kindergarten  as  a  separate  institution,  having  aims  and 
methods  of  its  own  different  from  those  which  should 
prevail  in  other  schools,  have  often  in  America  and  in 
Germany  proved  unsuccessful.  It  is  as  an  organic 
part  of  a  complete  scheme  of  juvenile  instruction,  as  a 
preliminary  training  of  those  faculties  and  aptitudes 
which  have  afterward  to  be  developed  when  the  time  for 
serious  application  arrives,  that  the  kindergarten  is  most 
valuable." 

The  kindergarten  was  Froebel's  greatest  work,  but 
not  his  only  educational  work.  The  Education  of  Man 
was  published  in  1826,  fourteen  years  before  he  opened 
his  first  kindergarten,  yet  if  he  had  died  in  1827,  his 
contributions  to  educational  thought  would  have  given 
him  a  foremost  place  among  educational  reformers. 

H.  Courthope  Bowen,  in  his  admirable  work  on 
Froebel  and  Education  through  Self -Activity,  says: 
"  Froebel  was  possessed  of  large  and  generous  views  on 
education  as  a  whole,  and  on  its  methods  and  results 
as  wholes;  but  it  is  the  work  which  he  did  for,  the  edu- 
cation of  infants  between  the  ages  of  three  and  seven 


PREFACE. 


XI 


that  chiefly  demajids  our  gratitude,  so  far  as  his  aims 
have  been  realized  up  to  the  present;  in  the  future,  un- 
less I  am  seriously  mistaken,  his  greatest  service  will  be 
in  the  reforms  which  his  principles  and  methods  will 
have  forced  on  our  schools  and  colleges."  And  again: 
"It  argues,  therefore,  an  absolute  misunderstanding  of 
the  whole  matter  to  callously  and  indifferently  admit 
that  Froebel's  ideas  are  true  enough  for  the  kindergar- 
ten, and  at  the  same  time  to  deny  that  they  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  school." 

Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  in  the  preface  to  The  Education  of 
Man,  says:  "  Those  who  persistently  read  his  works 
are  always  growing  in  insight  and  in  power  of  higher 
achievement."  This  is  the  best  influence  one  human 
being  can  have  on  another. 

Froebel's  work  was  to  relate  grand  ideals  to  each 
other  and  to  co-ordinate  the  theoretical  and  the  practi- 
cal. He  transformed  abstract  principles  into  realities 
with  consummate  skill,  and  systematized  the  use  of 
material  things  as  agencies  in  the  spiritual  growth  of 
the  child  to  a  degree  never  dreamed  of  by  even  the 
greatest  educators  who  preceded  him.  He  made  valu- 
able discoveries  in  education,  but  his  grandest  work  was 
the  crystallization  of  true  ideals  into  a  system.  By 
doing  so  he  made  it  possible  for  all  honest,  unpreju- 
diced teachers,  not  blinded  by  presumptuous  ignorance, 
to  see  what  had  hitherto  been  revealed  only  to  the  few 
whose  free  minds  had  swept  beyond  the  range  of  fettered 
thouglit.  He  reduced  to  organized  objective  form  the- 
oretical truths  which  would  have  remained  incompre- 
hensible to  the  vast  majority  of  teachers  if  he  had  not 
made  them  realities  in  the  kindergarten.    He  wrote  ver)- 


Xil 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


wisely,  but  his  profound  writings  would  not  have  dis- 
seminated truth  as  clearly  in  centuries  as  his  system 
in  practice  has  done  in  a  few  years. 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  give  a  simple  exposition 
of  the  most  important  principles  of  Froebel's  educa- 
tional philosophy,  and  to  make  suggestions  regarding 
the  application  of  these  principles  to  the  work  of  the 
schoolroom  in  teaching  and  training. 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  know  the  leading 
kindergartners  of  America,  and  to  have  seen  the  prac- 
tical work  of  most  of  them.  For  more  than  twenty  years 
by  the  study  of  their  writings,  by  personal  discussion, 
and  by  observing  their  admirable  work,  I  have  sought 
to  acquire  clear  views  in  regard  to  FroebePs  philosophy, 
and  to  apply  it  in  the  work  of  the  public  schools.  To 
all  of  them  my  indebtedness  is  freely  acknowledged. 

It  is  but  just  that  I  should  express  specially  my  grati- 
tude for  inspiration  received  from  Madame  Kraus- 
Boelte,  Miss  Susan  E.  Blow,  Dr.  Harris,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hailman,  and  Mr.  H.  Courthope  Bowen,  of  London, 
England.  Nor  would  I  forget  in  this  connection  the 
constant  suggestiveness  of  my  wife,  Ada  Marean 
Hughes. 

The  quotations  from  Froebel  have  been  made  from 

Hailman's    translation    of    The    Education    of    Man, 

Froebel's  Autobiography,  translated  by  Michaelis  and 

Moore,  and  Reminiscences  of  Froebel,  by  Baroness  von 

Marenholz-Biilow.    It  is  hoped  that  the  grouping  of  his 

thought  under  topical  headings  may  be  of  service. 

James  L.  Hughes. 
Toronto,  September,  1896, 


I .. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

T     m  PAOB 
1.    IHE  DISTINCTIVE  CHARACTKRISTICS  OF   PrOKBKL's  SYS- 
TEM          2 

II.  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel  ....  37 

III.  Proebel's  fundamental  law  ;  unity  or  inner  con- 

nection         48 

IV.  Froebel's  fundamental  process:  self-activity      .  84 
V.  Play  as  an  educational  factor       .        .       .       .121 

VI.  The  harmony  between  control  and  spontaneity  .  154 
VII.  Nature  as  the  revealer  of  life,  evolution,  and 

God 179 

VIII.  Correlation  of  studies 197 

IX.  Apperception 212 

X.  Individuality  and  self-expression    ....  222 

XI.  Objective  teaching  and  manual  training       .       .  248 

XII.  Evolution 260 

XIII.  Froebel's  ethical  principles 265 

xiii 


•    .'.4 


$**.- 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE     DISTINCTIVE     CHABACTERISTICS     OF      FROEBEL'S 

SYSTEM. 


As  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  FroebeFs  system 
it  is  important  to  take  a  general  view  of  the  charac- 
teristics that  distinguish  him  from  other  educators. 

Child  Study. — Froebel  made  the  child  the  chief 
agent  in  its  own  development.  The  child  was  the  cen- 
tral point  of  his  study.  One  of  his  mottoes  was:  "  In 
the  children  lies  the  seed  corn  of  the  future."  He  rec- 
ognised the  power  and  the  value  of  the  teacher,  but  he 
realized  very  clearly  that  the  teacher's  influence  might 
be  too  great.  He  reverenced  the  individuality  of  the 
child  too  much  to  allow  the  teacher  to  overshadow  it,  or 
prevent  its  growth  by  restrictive  domination  or  by  neg- 
lecting to  give  it  the  most  ample  opportunities  for  self- 
development. 

Other  educators  have  studied  the  child  to  learn  what 
the  teacher  can  do  for  it,  what  instruction  it  should 
receive,  when  it  should  be  taught  certain  subjects,  and 
how  these  subjects  should  be  taught.  Froebel  studied 
the  child  to  help  it  in  its  self-education,  to  discover  the 
order  of  its  mental  and  moral  awakening,  and  the  way 


2       FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 

in  which  it  becomes  acquainted  with  its  environment 
and  enters  into  its  social  relationships,  and  claimed  that 
all  educational  methods  should  be  in  harmony  with  the 
natural  processes  of  the  child's  own  evolution.  He  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  education  is  a  work  of  growth  car- 
ried on  hy  and  through  the  child,  and  not  merely  for  it. 

Froebel  valued  the  work  of  the  teacher  as  highly  as 
other  educators,  but  he  placed  a  higher  estimate  on  the 
child's  own  work  than  any  other  writer.  His  system 
does  not  lessen  the  need  for  wise  and  cultured  teachers, 
but  demands  thorough  training  and  broad  culture  on 
the  part  of  all  who  have  the  privilege  of  training  child- 
hood. He  does  not  reduce  the  work  of  the  teacher,  but 
he  makes  a  radical  change  in  its  character. 

Froebel's  study  of  the  child  that  he  might  learn  its 
own  processecs  of  self-revelation,  self-development,  and 
self-enrichment,  mentally  and  morally,  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  deep  interest  in  child  study  now  shown  so 
universally  by  teachers.  Child  study  of  a  definite  kind 
conducted  systematically  for  the  purpose  of  learning 
how  the  race  should  be  taught  and  trained  is  a  modern 
study.  The  physiological  psychology  of  childhood  and 
the  recording  of  its  spontaneous  manifestations  have 
only  recently  begun  to  occupy  the  attention  of  a  few  ad- 
vanced experimental  psychologists,  but  there  has  been 
a  sudden  awakening,  and  there  are  already  many  evi- 
dences of  a  widespread  interest  in  these  departments 
of  educational  investigation.  The  interest  was  undoubt- 
edly aroused  more  rapidly  by  the  establishment  of  kin- 
dergartens. They  became  objective  representations  of 
the  great  truth  that  children  may  be  aided  in  self-edu- 
cation by  supplying  them  with  material  to  stimulate 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 


their  creative  activity.  They  recognised  the  sacredness 
of  the  child's  individuality.  They  elevated  the  child 
above  the  mere  knowledge  which  it  is  intended  to  use. 
They  made  the  child  the  chief  agent  in  its  own  develop- 
ment. They  aimed  to  deal  with  the  divinity  rather  than 
the  depravity  of  the  child.  They  helped  to  make  real . 
Emerson's  ideal  that  the  child  is  the  "  sun  of  the  world." 
They  revealed  the  fact  that  the  child  may  be  educated 
for  a  time  most  effectively  without  books.  This  made 
teachers  think  as  they  never  had  done  of  the  relative 
value  of  the  child  and  knowledge,  and  showed  objective- 
ly the  great  importance  of  studying  the  child  most  care- 
fully at  all  stages  of  its  growth,  so  that  it  might  be 
guided  in  its  education  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  its 
natural  development. 

Unity  or  Inner  Connection. — Froebel's  system  is 
based  on  the  underlying  law  of  unity.  He  meant  more 
by  unity  than  any  other  writer,  either  before  or  since  his 
time.  He  saw  relationships  and  inner  connection  with 
marvellous  clearness.  He  saw  unity  between  man  and 
his  Creator,  and  taught  that  the  chief  end  of  education 
is  to  make  that  unity  perfect,  so  that  humanity  may  be- . 
come  conscious  of  the  unity,  and  that  its  consciousness 
of  unity  with  God  may  lead  it  to  reverent  and  co-opera- 
tive activity  with  him.  He  saw  the  unity  between  God, 
Nature,  and  man,  and  therefore  taught  that  Nature 
was  the  best  revealer  of  God  to  the  child.  He  saw  the 
unity  in  the  processes  of  growth  and  evolution  to  higher 
form  in  vhe  living  organisms  of  Nature,  and  thus  made 
natural  history  and  botany  studies  of  the  highest  moral 
value.  He  saw  the  unity  of  the  inorganic  world  so 
thoroughly.,  and  expounded  it  in  such  minute  details, 
2 


II 


I! 


{i 


I. « 


4       FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 

that  his  explanations  sometimes  appear  fanciful,  as 
in  crystallography,  for  instance;  but  even  when  modern 
science  refuses  to  accept  the  theories  he  framed  it  must 
recognise  in  him  an  advanced  scientist  for  his  time. 
One  can  not  escape  the  conviction  that,  if  he  had  been 
fortunate  enough  to  have  had  the  advantage  of  the  sci- 
entific development  since  his  death,  he  would  have  seen 
even  more  clearly  the  unity  of  all  created  things,  or- 
ganic and  inorganic,  and  the  universal  law  working 
through  them. 

He  saw  the  unity  between  man  as  an  individual  and 
man  as  a  race  and  thereby  laid  the  broadest  basis  for  so- 
cial relationships  in  the  family,  the  municipality,  the 
state,  and  the  organic  unity  of  humanity.  He  saw 
the  unity  between  man's  physical,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  powers,  and  thus  broadened  the  basis  of  edu- 
cational thought  and  effort,  and  showed  the  influence 
of  every  conscious  act  in  the  formation  of  character. 
He  saw  the  unity  that  should  exist  between  man's  re- 
ceptive, reflective,  and  executive  powers,  and  on  this 
revelation  of  unity  based  radical  educational  reforms, 
which  have  made  clear  the  fallacy  of  attempting  to  ele- 
vate the  race  by  giving  it  more  power  to  acquire  knowl- 
edge, without  at  the  same  time  and  by  the  same  pro- 
cesses giving  it  greater  power  to  apply  knowledge,  and 
greater  tendency  to  use  it  definitely  for  good  purposes. 
He  saw  the  unity  or  continuity  between  childhood, 
youth,  and  manhoo^,  and  therefore  realized  the  impossi- 
bility of  reaching  the  highest  limit  of  culture  and  power 
in  manhood  unless  the  fullest  appropriate  development 
has  been  reached  in  the  preceding  culture  epochs  of 
childhood  and  youth.    It  was  this  revelation  that  led 


CHAKACTERISTICS  OF  FKOEBEL'S  SYSTEM.        5 

him  to  see  the  imperative  necessity  for  the  kindergarten 
in  order  that  the  basal  work  of  education  might  be  done 
in  such  a  way  as  to  prepare  the  child  for  its  most  com- 
j)lete  growth  in  succeeding  periods  of  development, 
lie  claimed  that  the  child  was  usually  weakened  to  such 
an  extent  when  it  came  to  school  that  it  never  regained 
its  lost  power  or  attained  the  maximum  limit  of  knowl- 
edge or  skill  which  would  have  been  possible  if  its  mind 
had  been  properly  stimulated,  stored,  and  exercised. 
The  weakening  of  the  child's  power  before  the  school 
I)oriod  he  attributed  to  both  positive  and  negative 
causes.  The  child  was  unduly  dominated  by  its  seniors, 
who  had  till  Froebel's  time  never  studied  it  sufficiently 
to  understand  it  and  fully  sympathize  with  it;  and  few 
children  were  placed  in  conditions  which  were  calculated 
to  stimulate  and  define  their  own  creative  self-activity, 
which  he  regarded  as  the  essential  element  in  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  development.  On  the  one  hand 
the  child's  spontaneity  was  checked  by  unreasoning  re- 
pression, and  on  the  other  it  was  dwarfed  by  lack  of 
opportunity  for  proper  exercise.  Such  conditions  he  be- 
lieved to  be  a  barrier  to  the  highest  progress  of  the 
race,  and  he  founded  the  kindergarten  in  order  that  the 
l)eriod  of  mightiest  and  most  unlimited  nascent  possi- 
])ilities  in  the  child's  life  might  be  fully  and  systematic- 
ally occupied  in  awakening  and  defining  the  complete 
circle  of  its  powers.  He  saw  the  vital  unity  between  the 
<lifl'erent  departments  of  learning,  and  therefore  planned 
a  logical  system  of  correlation  of  studies.  He  saw  the 
unity  between  the  subjective  and  the  objective,  and 
therefore  taught  the  true  inner  connection  between  the 
sense  training  of  Pestalozzi  and  the  real  mental  growth 


'M         I 


0       FROEBEL'a  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 

of  the  child.  He  understood  the  fundamental  law  of 
mind  development  by  apperception  as  thoroughly  as 
Herbart,  and  made  his  whole  system  contribute  to  the 
awakening  of  the  inner  power  and  experience  of  the 
child  which  is  most  directly  related  to  the  new  ex- 
perience or  to  the  fresh  presentation  of  knowledge. 
He  saw  the  unity  between  knowing,  feeling,  and  will- 
ing, between  analysis  and  synthesis,  between  thought 
and  life.  He  saw  the  unity  or  inner  connection  of  all 
created  things  so  clearly  that  he  made  the  reconciliation 
of  opposites  an  important  element  of  his  system.  He 
believed  this  law  of  unity,  inner  connection,  or  vital  in- 
terrelationship to  be  universal,  and  made  it  the  funda- 
mental law  and  the  ultimate  aim  of  all  true  educational 
effort. 

8  elf -Activity. — As  unity  is  Froebel's  fundamental 
law,  so  self-activity  is  his  essential  educational  pro- 
cess. His  recognition  and  wonderful  application  of  self- 
activity  is  the  most  comprehensive  and  the  most  dis- 
tinctive element  in  his  educational  system.  It  is  the 
most  productive  educational  principle  that  has  yet  been 
discovered.  It  involves  the  doctrines  of  interest  and  ap- 
perception not  merely  as  educational  theories,  but  as 
applied  educational  principles  called  into  play  naturally 
and  forcefully  as  essential  steps  in  guiding  and  deter- 
mining the  activities  of  the  child.  It  makes  the  child 
the  centre  upon  which  all  true  correlation  is  focused. 
It  is  the  only  process  by  which  the  co-ordination  of  the 
child's  brain  can  be  made  complete.  It  makes  the  child 
an  executive  as  well  as  a  receptive  and  reflective  being, 
and  thereby  overcomes  the  most  universal  human  weak- 
ness of  failing  to  live  and  act  up  to  the  limit  of  individ- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OP  PROBBELb  SYSTEM. 


ual  knowing  and  thinking.  It  reveals  the  child  to  its 
teacher  and  to  itself  by  making  the  inner  become  the 
outer  life.  It  defines  the  feeling  and  thought  of  the 
child  and  makes  it  original  and  progressive.  It  is  the 
truest  basis  of  self-faith  and  independence  of  character, 
without  which  the  strongest  and  most  cultured  intellect 
is  not  adequately  efficient  as  a  productive  or  an  uplift- 
ing force.  It  makes  the  child  not  only  responsively, 
but  also  suggestively  co-operative  with  its  teachers  and 
parents,  so  that  it  becomes  a  co-worker,  not  a  follower, 
and  a  creative  instead  of  an  imitative  agent. 

Froebei's  ideal  of  self-activity  is  distinctively  his 
own.  No  writer  before  his  time  conceived  the  idea,  and 
few  writers  since  have  thoroughly  understood  it.  When 
it  is  grasped  in  its  full  meaning  by  educators  it  will  re- 
move more  weaknesses  and  errors  from  the  methods  of 
teachers,  and  form  the  basis  of  greater  reforms  than 
any  other  educational  principle.  It  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  the  activity  of  the  child  in  performing 
operations  in  response  to  the  command  or  suggestion 
of  its  teacher  or  any  other  person.  It  is  the  spontaneous 
effort  of  the  child  to  make  manifest  to  itself  and  others 
the  inner  conceptions  and  operations  of  its  own  mind. 
In  true  self-activity  the  motive  or  impulse  that  causes 
the  action  originates  with  the  child  itself.  Other  edu- 
cators saw  the  necessity  for  training  the  child  to  act; 
Froebel  saw  that  the  child  should  be  trained  to  act  inde- 
pendently. Other  educators  aimed  to  develop  power 
to  perform  certain  operations;  he  gave  power  to  direct 
operations  in  addition  to  the  power  to  perform  them. 
He  trained  the  will  to  control  the  activities  of  the  be- 
ing.   He  developed  tendency  to  do,  wisdom  i|i  decidin|{ 


8 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


nil 


what  to  do,  and  will  to  govern  the  doing,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  operations  that  have  been  used  by  other 
educators  to  develop  only  skill  in  execution.  Other 
educators  gave  the  child  power  to  do  its  part  well  under 
certain  conditions;  he  not  only  gave  this,  but  also  the 
power  to  mould  conditions,  to  see  opportunities,  and  to 
choose  those  best  suited  to  individual  taste  and  ability. 
He  increased  spontaneity  of  will  action  and  expertness 
in  execution  at  the  same  time;  other  educators  have 
aimed  to  develop  them  separately  or  have  failed  alto- 
gether to  give  attention  to  the  former. 

Early  Training  of  Sensations  and  Emotions. — Froe- 
bel  endeavoured  to  place  the  child  in  such  conditions  as 
to  define  its  sensations  and  emotions,  and  prepared  for 
mothers  and  kindergartners  a  very  complete  system  of 
songs,  games,  and  suggestions — The  Mother  Play — to 
guide  them  in  stimulating  and  fostering  the  sensations 
and  emotions  of  children.  In  writing  about  The  Mother 
Play,  he  said:  "  This  book  is  the  starting  point  of  a 
natural  system  of  education  for  the  first  years  of  life, 
for  it  teaches  the  way  in  which  the  germs  of  human 
dispositions  should  be  nourished  and  fostered  if  they 
are  to  attain  to  complete  and  healthy  development." 
This  book  he  regarded  as  the  most  important  part  of 
his  educational  work,  because  it  dealt  with  a  depart- 
ment of  education  which  had  been  neglected  by  all  other 
educators,  and  because  he  believed  that  the  strength  and 
the  possible  development  of  the  mind  in  after  life  de- 
pend on  the  wideness  of  range  and  definiteness  of  the 
fundamental  emotions  and  sensations.  In  one  of  the 
remarkable  conversations  with  the  Baroness  von  Maren- 
holz-BUlow,  he  said;  "  The  understanding  of  the  uncou- 


1 


:! 


CHARACTERISTICS  OP  PROEBBL'S  SYSTEM.    9 


scious  is  the  germ  and  the  beginning  of  the  conscious, 
and  80  surely  as  they  stand  in  connection  with  each 
other,  so  surely  the  one  as  well  as  the  other  has  its  ori- 
gin in  unity — '*  God."  lie  not  only  realized  that  apper- 
ception was  essential  in  the  evolution  of  mind,  he 
saw  that  apperception  could  not  take  place  unless 
the  mind  contained  the  germ  elements  correspond- 
ing to  the  new  knowledge  to  be  communicated 
to  it,  and  he  wished  to  form  apperceptive  centres 
in  the  heart  as  well  as  in  the  mind.  He  valued 
apperceptive  centres  of  feeling  even  more  than  ap- 
perceptive centres  of  thought.  He  reasoned  that  the 
more  the  child's  sensations  and  emotions  are  defined 
and  varied  the  greater  its  possibilities  for  growth  be- 
come, and  he  wisely  concluded  that  the  worst  period 
during  the  life  of  a  human  being  in  which  to  leave  his 
mental  and  moral  evolution  to  chance  is  the  time 
when  his  mind  and  heart  are  being  organized  and 
charged  with  the  power  centres  which  to  so  large  an 
extent  decide  his  tendency,  his  range,  and  his  strength. 
He  planned  a  system  of  education  that  would  give  the 
child  experience  as  a  basis  for  instruction  and  for  ethical 
culture,  and  demanded  that  the  home  and  kindergarten 
should  send  a  child  to  school  with  "a  foundation,  a 
basis,  a  sum  of  living  germs  in  the  life  material  it  has 
gathered."  In  this  department  of  educational  investi- 
gation he  had  the  widest  scope  for  originality.  No  one 
had  preceded  him,  and  few  have  yet  been  able  to  follow 
(vhere  he  led.  There  is  still  need  of  intelligent  study 
on  the  part  of  educators  to  extend  the  good  work  begun 
by  Froebel  in  order  to  increase  the  stock  of  germ  ele- 
ments in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  children  before  they 


I 


I 


!:| 


10 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


go  to  school — even  before  they  go  the  kindergarten. 
The  need  for  this  definite  training  of  the  child's  powers 
of  sensation  and  emotion  in  its  earliest  years  has  been 
greatly  increased  since  Froebel's  time  by  the  extraordi- 
nary recent  growth  of  great  cities.  Both  in  Europe  and 
America  the  number  and  size  of  cities  and  large  towns 
has  rapidly  increased.  The  tendency  to  leave  the  farm 
and  the  forest  for  the  supposed  advantages  of  urban  life 
is  one  of  the  alarming  social  movements  of  the  age.  The 
children  are  the  greatest  losers  by  this  change.  The 
child  brought  up  in  the  country  close  to  the  glories  of 
Nature  has  the  opportunity  to  obtain  a  much  richer 
mental  and  moral  foundation  than  the  child  who  lives 
in  the  city.  If  allowed  its  freedom  among  the  flowers, 
the  trees,  the  bird^,  the  insects,  and  the  ever-changing 
growth  of  Nature  in  its  varied  forms  of  living  and  trans- 
forming or  evolving  organisms,  the  country  child  needs 
little  guidance  in  gaining  a  wide  experience  of  sensa- 
tions and  emotions  as  a  basis  for  its  future  conscious 
development.  Here  the  child  needs  but  the  perfect 
sympathy  of  its  mother,  in  love  with  Nature  and  with 
her  child,  in  order  to  have  its  mind  filled  with  a  vast 
store  of  the  germs  of  mental  strength  and  moral  beauty, 
which  are  ever  freely  communicated  to  the  child  or  the 
man  who  can  hear  what  Nature  is  whispering  or  see 
what  she  is  doing.  In  cities  the  child  is  not  so  fortu- 
nate. Its  range  is  limited  and  the  conditions  are  an- 
natural.  Therefore,  while  The  Mother  Play  is  invalu- 
able to  all  teachers,  kindergartners,  and  mothers,  it  is 
needed  especially  in  the  homes  of  cities  and  towns  to 
widen  and  define  the  experiences  of  children  so  that 
they  may  have  minds  full  of  germ  centres  to  which 


CHABACTERISTICS  OP  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      H 


the  varied  knowledge  to  be  given  in  the  schools  may  be 
clearly  related,  and  hearts  in  which  the  emotional 
foundations  of  character  have  been  laid. 

Theory  of  Evolution. — The  theory  of  evolution  was 
not  discovered  by  Froebel,  but  he  first  made  it  a  defi- 
nite element  in  a  system  of  education.  He  did  not  rec- 
ognise it  merely  as  a  philosophical  educational  theory, 
he  made  it  a  practical  reality.  One  of  his  distinctive 
characteristics  is  his  genius  for  reducing  philosophical 
and  psychological  principles  to  definite  pedagogical 
practice.  This  gives  value  to  all  his  educational  work. 
He  gave  to  teachers  concrete  representations  of  educa- 
tional theories.  He  made  it  impossible  to  carry  out  his 
system  without  practising  the  principles  involved  in  it, 
and  thus  made  the  revelation  of  educational  concepts 
to  the  minds  of  teachers  conform  to  the  law  of  "  learn- 
ing to  do  by  doing."  By  his  objective  representation  of 
educational  principles  in  practical  operation  he  made  it 
possible  for  philosophic  minds  to  recognise  them  better 
than  he  did  himself.  Many  of  the  writers  on  evolution 
since  his  time  have  been  indebted  to  him  for  their 
philosophy  of  evolution.  Throughout  The  Education 
of  Man,  and,  indeed,  in  all  Froebel's  works,  all  his 
thoughts,  methods,  systems,  and  processes  are  associated 
with  the  idea  of  a  natural  and  a  gradual  evolution  to 
higher  degrees  of  development.  He  found  evidences  of 
this  in  individual  plants  and  in  plant  life  as  a  whole. 
He  noted  that  care,  culture,  and  full  opportunity  pro- 
duced finer  individual  flowers,  and  that  by  the  inter- 
fructification  of  the  best  specimens  a  higher  type  might 
be  developed,  in  which  even  the  characteristic  struc- 
ture might  be  improved.    He  found  in  Nature  a  con- 


'I 


'ill 


!  I 


1 

.1' 
It 

Jil 


12 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tinuity  in  the  ascending  stages  from  the  lowest  types  of 
organized  life  through  plant  and  animal  life  up  to  man 
himself.  He  saw  that  development  in  the  individual 
and  in  the  species  is  from  within,  and  that  exercise  of 
function  is  the  universal  law  underlying  the  increase  of 
functional  power.  He  saw  that  conditions  and  environ- 
ment and  nurture  have  a  great  influence  on  the  charac- 
ter of  the  plant  or  animal,  but  he  saw  also  that  the 
dominant  influence  in  the  development  of  the  plant 
or  animal  is  its  own  inner  life.  He  reasoned  that  all 
life  is  subject  to  the  law  of  evolution,  and  that  the  higher 
the  type  of  living  organism  the  less  the  influence  of 
material  things  must  be  in  retarding  or  accelerating  its 
development,  and  the  greater  the  possibility  of  higher 
evolution.  He  planned,  therefore,  a  definite  system  for 
the  evolution  of  humanity  through  its  successive  periods 
of  infancy,  childhood,  youth,  and  manhood,  the  founda- 
tions of  which  he  concluded  by  analogy  should  be  free- 
dom, stimulating  environment,  ample  opportunity,  ap- 
propriate knowledge,  and  self-activity.  He  finished  the 
details  of  the  earliest  period  only,  but  he  had  planned  a 
similar  definite  system  for  the  higher  departments  of 
education.  He  believed  that  every  age  should  reach  a 
higher  stage  of  culture  and  power  than  the  preceding 
one,  physically,  intellectually,  and  spiritually.  He 
hoped  for  new  inventions  to  deal  with  material  things, 
and  grander  intellectual  and  spiritual  revelations  with 
each  successive  era.  He  taught  that  education  should 
be  one  of  the  most  progressive  departments  of  human 
thought  and  effort,  and  tried  to  lead  each  individual  to 
believe  that  he  had  pov/er  to  help  humanity  to  climb, 
and  that  the  unselfish  use  of  this  power  was  his  highest 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      13 


duty  and  the  source  of  his  most  perfect  happiness. 
Thus  he  made  evolution  a  self-adjusting,  reproductive, 
progressive  process,  and  education  the  application  of  this 
process  in  the  development  of  humanity.  His  whole 
educational  system  was  an  earnest  protest  against  the 
idea  that  education  could  be  superimposed  on  the  child 
from  without.  He  said,  in  summing  up  the  essential 
principles  explained  in  The  Education  of  Man;  "  God 
neither  ingrafts  nor  inoculates.  He  develops  the  most 
trivial  and  imperfect  things  in  continuously  ascending 
series,  and  in  accordance  with  eternal  self-grounded  and 
self-developing  laws." 

His  educational  law  of  evolution  was  based  on  his 
belief  in  the  unity  between  divinity  and  humanity. 
He  utteriy  discarded  the  doctrine  of  the  total  depravity 
of  the  child.  He  believed  that  even  in  the  most  de- 
praved and  uncultivated  races  and  individuals  there  is 
an  element  of  the  divine,  and  that  all  true  education  is 
"  a  conscious  growth  toward  the  divine."  He  aimed  to 
reveal  God  to  the  child  as  the  unseen  power  in  the  natu- 
ral forces  and  the  natural  life  around  it,  in  order  that 
a  conscious  unity  might  be  established  between  God 
and  the  element  of  divinity  in  man.  This  conscious 
unity  he  made  the  foundation  of  his  faith  in  education 
as  an  evolutionary  agency.  The  divinity  in  the  child 
he  regarded  as  its  individuality,  and  therefore  he  de- 
manded for  true  individuality  the  most  sacred  reverence 
and  perfect  freedom.  He  recognised  very  clearly  the 
terrible  evidences  of  deterioration  and  degeneracy  in 
human  nature  through  heredity,  but  he  believed  that 
while  the  evils  brought  into  human  nature  may  obscure 
the  divinity  in  it,  they  can  ^ot  eradicate  it,  and  that 


T^ 


14 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


Ijii 


w 

M 
^11 


when  even  the  smallest  element  of  divinity  in  the  child 
is  brought  into  activity  in  acordance  with  the  Creator's 
law  of  evolution,  it  becomes  an  uplifting,  self-develop- 
ing, and  reproductive  force,  that  will  gradually  triumph 
over  the  evils  of  heredity.  The  very  fact  that  he  found 
different  degrees  of  development  in  humanity,  as  he  did 
in  the  vegetable  and  animal  world,  convinced  him  that 
those  in  the  lower  degrees  must,  under  proper  condi- 
tions, in  conformity  to  a  law  which  he  conceived  to 
be  universal,  advance  to  higher  conditions,  and  that 
those  in  the  highest  could  rise  more  rapidly  to  still 
higher  degrees  of  development. 

The  application  of  the  law  of  evolution  to  education 
has  revolutionized  the  views  of  teachers  in  regard  to 
the  functions  of  education.  Men  and  women  are  now 
investigating  educational  forces  with  the  child  as  the 
dominant  element.  There  is  hope  for  the  teacher  in 
the  widening  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  humai. 
evolution  based  on  reverence  for  the  child. 

The  unfolding  of  this  law  is  leading  to  a  logical 
settlement  of  all  questions  relating  to  the  studies  that 
should  find  a  place  in  educational  courses.  These  ques- 
tions are  not  yet  decided.  The  best  for  to-day  may  not 
be  the  best  for  all  the  coming  days.  The  discussions 
are  focused  now  on  the  child  and  the  effectiveness  of 
different  kinds  of  knowledge  as  elements  in  producing 
the  broadest,  richest,  strongest  development  appropriate 
to  the  successive  and  interrelated  stages  of  its  growth. 
FroebePs  motto,  "  The  renovation  of  life,"  is  taking  the 
place  of  the  old  ideal  that  "  knowledge  is  power." 

Individuality. — Froebel's  conception  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  child's  individuality  is  one  of  the  promi' 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      15 

nent  characteristics  of  his  system.  He  taught  that  every 
child  has  special  power,  and  that  its  fullest  growth  and 
truest  education  can  not  be  attained  unless  this  special 
power  becomes  the  dominant  element  in  its  life — the 
central  current,  to  which  all  its  other  powers  form  tribu- 
tary streams.  He  made  this  the  guiding  principle  in  his 
disciplinary  agencies.  The  continued  coercion  of  an- 
other being,  parent  or  teacher,  he  regarded  as  a  gross 
injustice  certain  to  prevent  the  full  development  of  the 
child.  He  condemned  all  disciplinary  agencies  which  in 
any  way  overshadow  the  child  or  interfere  with  its  sense 
of  perfect  freedom.  Free  growth  is  the  only  full  growth. 
He  did  not  advocate  giving  the  child  unrestrained 
liberty  to  do  wrong.  He  rejected  the  theory  that  chil- 
dren love  to  do  wrong  better  than  right,  and  regarded 
the  transference  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  child 
from  wrong  to  right  as  the  foundation  on  which  true 
training  is  based.  The  power  to  transfer  interest  natu- 
rally from  wrong  to  right  is  the  greatest  power  of  the 
parent  or  teacher  in  co-operating  with  the  child  in  its 
own  moral  and  intellectual  culture.  His  theory  rested 
on  the  following  well-defined,  related  principles:  The 
child's  own  self-activity  must  be  the  agency  of  its  truest 
and  fullest  development.  Self-activity  is  impossible  un- 
der restraint.  The  child  loves  to  do  right  better  than 
to  do  wrong,  to  be  constructive  better  than  to  be  de- 
structive. The  well-trained  teacher  can  change  the 
centre  of  interest  without  coercion,  and  without  inter- 
rupting the  operation  of  self-activity.  Therefore  the 
child's  selfhood  may  be  sacredly  respected  without  en- 
dangering its  own  moral  nature  or  the  rights  of  others. 
By  the  wise  application  of  these  principles  he  estab- 


II! 


Ill] 


m 


m 


W 


16 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


lished  the  perfect  harmony  between  control  and  spon- 
taneity, and  burst  the  fetters  of  external  limitations  to 
the  soul. 

The  progress  of  the  ages  has  been  a  growth  toward 
freedom.  The  true  ideal  of  freedom  can  never  be  con- 
ceived by  a  mind  that  has  been  made  conscious  of  sub- 
jection to  another  mind.  Subordination  is  an  unmixed 
evil.  Froebel  stands  pre-eminent  among  educators  by 
his  recognition  of  the  child's  individuality,  and  by  the 
success  he  achieved  in  providing  for  its  unrestricted  de- 
velopment in  his  educational  system. 

Co-operation. — Froebel's  recognition  of  individual- 
ity did  not  end  in  individualism.  His  universal  law  of 
inner  connection  or  unity  gave  him  power  to  see  indi- 
vidual man  in  his  relationship  to  the  whole  of  human- 
ity. He  therefore  aimed  to  make  each  man  as  perfect 
as  possible  in  order  that  he  might  completely  fulfil  his 
duty  as  a  part  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  knowing 
that  the  character  of  the  organized  whole  depends  on 
the  development  of  its  individual  elements.  His  prophet 
soul  saw  clearly  what  has  even  yet  been  revealed  to  few 
of  the  leaders  of  advanced  sociology — that  there  is  an 
essential  unity  existing  beween  individualism  and  so- 
cialism. When  his  educational  principles  have  been 
practised  long  enough  to  make  them  dominant  elements 
in  human  character  there  will  be  an  end  to  the  illogical 
socialism  that  demands  compulsory  co-operation  in  de- 
fiance of  individual  rights.  His  kindergarten  or  school 
was  a  little  world  where  responsibility  was  shared  by  all, 
individual  rights  respected  by  all,  brotherly  sympathy 
developed  in  all,  and  voluntary  co-operation  practised 
by  all.    He  denied  that  good  citizenship  can  be  pro- 


itflEl 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      17 

duced  by  knowledge  alone,  however  carefully  it  may  be 
selected  with  respect  to  its  own  value  and  its  adaptation 
to  the  stages  of  the  child's  development.  He  insisted 
that  character  is  formed  by  living  the  principles  of 
truth,  justice,  and  freedom,  and  not  by  learning  them. 
He  believed  that  self-activity  is  even  more  essential 
in  the  organization  of  the  varied  powers  of  a  being  into 
the  unity  called  character  than  it  is  in  the  development 
of  the  individual  elements  of  power.  So  he  made  his 
school  and  his  kindergarten  conform  as  far  as  possible 
to  the  conditions  of  an  ideal  society  in  order  to  qualify 
the  race  for  greater,  truer,  purer,  more  unselfish  living 
in  the  wider  spheres  of  social  and  national  life.  He  did 
not  claim  that  the  positive  and  negative  evils  wrought 
into  the  sensitive  organism  of  human  nature  by  centu- 
ries of  restrictive  conditions  can  be  eradicated  or  over- 
come completely  in  a  single  generation,  but  he  did  teach 
that  it  can  be  most  effectively  wrought  out  by  perform- 
ing unselfish,  loving  deeds,  and  that  the  true  altruistic 
spirit  springs  from  the  recognition  of  the  unity  of  soci- 
ety as  the  supreme  element  in  deciding  human  rela- 
tionships. This  recognition  of  social  unity,  interrela- 
tionship, and  duty,  Froebel  aimed  to  define  in  early 
childhood,  not  by  theoretical  instruction,  but  by  making 
his  kindergartens  and  schools  essentially  social  organiza- 
tions. He  avoided  the  errors  of  the  Grecian  ideal  of 
social  unity  which  dwarfed  individual  development.  He 
condemned  national  and  social  unity  based  on  coercion, 
and  made  freedom  the  essential  element  in  the  highest 
culture  of  individuality,  and  the  most  perfect  organiza- 
tion of  society.  His  social  theory  was  based  on  the 
belief  that  individual  development  can  never  be  com- 


18 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


;i:        ! 


m 


plete  until  it  is  stimulated  to  its  fullest  limit  and  high- 
est eifort  by  the  inspiring  consciousness  of  the  intimate 
interrelationship  of  the  individual  members  of  society, 
and  the  consequent  impelling  possibilities  of  uplifting 
influence  on  humanity.  This  is  the  highest  motive  and 
it  gives  majesty  to  individual  selfhood,  because  it  frees 
it  from  all  the  narrowness  and  selfishness  of  exclusive 
individualism.  Selfishness  is  always  restrictive;  social- 
ism may  dwarf  individuality.  Froebel  saw  the  harmony 
between  egoism  and  altruism,  and  saw  in  the  indirect 
training  of  the  properly  organized  school  the  hope  of 
revealing  this  harmony  to  coming  generations.  When 
a  few  generations  shall  have  passed  through  such 
schools  teachers  will  fully  comprehend  Froebel's  pro- 
phetic revelation  of  the  unity  between  co-operation  and 
perfect  individuality,  and  the  war  between  individual- 
ism and  socialism  shall  be  at  an  end. 

Nature  Study. — Froebel's  idea  in  regard  to  Nature 
study  was  a  revelation.  He  was  a  passionate  student  of 
the  life  principle  in  Nature.  Even  while  serving  as  a 
soldier  he  collected  new  plants  discovered  during  the 
tiresome  marches  of  the  day,  in  order  that  he  might  be- 
come acquainted  with  them  by  the  camp  fire  in  the 
evening.  He  reverenced  plant  life  too  much  to  destroy 
it  unnecessarily.  He  preferred  to  make  his  observa- 
tions of  plants  while  they  were  growing.  He  saw  in  the 
growth  and  evolution  of  life  in  Nature  types  of  the  true 
growth  and  evolution  of  life  toward  higher  life.  He 
consequently  regarded  plant  culture  as  a  much  higher 
and  more  productive  study  for  the  child  than  plant 
analysis  and  classification.  He  made  Nature  study  and 
Nature  nurture  an  important  part  of  his  educational 


CHARACTERISTICS  OP  PROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      1ft 


system  chiefly  on  account  of  its  ethical  influence.  He 
believed  that  through  the  discovery  of  the  life  in  natural 
things  and  by  an  early  recognition  of  an  unseen  power 
in  the  forces  of  Nature,  the  child  secured  most  easily 
and  most  thoroughly  the  germs  of  spiritual  power  and 
a  true  conception  of  God  as  the  source  of  life.  He 
taught  the  child  to  plant  seeds  and  water  them  till  they 
germinated,  and  then  to  care  for  the  plants  as  they  grew 
to  maturity,  in  order  to  reveal  its  own  power  to  aid  in 
bringing  into  existence  new  life  and  to  help  to  higher 
life  the  life  that  already  exists.  The  child's  action  in 
developing  the  seed  and  the  plant  reveals,  by  the  sym- 
bolism which  Froebel  recognised  more  clearly  than  any 
other  educator,  the  possibilities  of  helpfulness  and  up- 
lifting power  which  the  individual  man  may  exercise  in 
the  elevation  of  his  fellow-men.  He  objected  to  formal 
lessons  on  duty,  morality,  and  religion,  because  he  be- 
lieved it  to  be  impossible  to  convey  knowledge  in  re- 
gard to  these  great  questions  until  their  fundamental 
elements  had  entered  the  minds  of  children  through 
experience.  The  laws  that  govern  apperception  in  ac- 
quiring knowledge  in  other  departments  of  culture  ap- 
ply with  equal  force  in  the  sphere  of  ethics.  To  try 
to  force  moral  and  religious  truth  into  the  child's  mind 
from  the  outside  is  certain  to  prevent  true  moral  and 
religious  growth,  and  substitute  for  it  a  self-deceptive 
formalism  and  a  destructive  hypocrisy. 

He  believed  that  through  Nature  the  child  could 
best  get  ideas  appropriate  to  its  stage  of  development, 
relating  to  beauty,  purity,  growth,  evolution  to  higher 
life,  the  consciousness  of  an  unseen  power,  of  life  in 

life  and  life  behind  life,  of  God,  and  of  co-opera- 
8 


I 


I 


I 


I  ! 


20 


FROEBKL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tion  with  the  unseen  life — God.  He  believed  that  with- 
out a  basis  of  such  germ  thoughts  and  feelings  the  great 
principles  of  religious  faith  and  life  could  never  become 
vital  elements  in  the  life  of  a  human  soul. 

Nature  study  was  therefore  to  Froebel  not  only  the 
best  preparation  for  botany  and  zoology,  and  the  cen- 
tre of  educational  effort  around  which  he  would  corre- 
late all  other  studies,  but  the  basis  of  definite  and  thor- 
ough ethical  training. 

Objective  Work. — Froebel's  use  of  material  is  des- 
tined to  revolutionize  the  methods  of  object  teaching. 
Pestalozzi  gave  a  mighty  impulse  to  objective  work  in 
schools.  Unfortunately  his  aim  was  misunderstood  by 
nearly  all  the  English  and  American  educators  of  his 
time.  He  made  his  pupils  examine  and  handle  real 
things  for  the  purpose  of  giving  a  definite  training  to 
their  powers  of  acquiring  knowledge,  but  English  and 
American  teachers  adopted  his  objective  work  as  a 
means  of  giving  knowledge  to  their  pupils  more  easily 
and  more  clearly.  Nearly  all  the  books  on  object  teach- 
ing yet  published  in  English  perpetuate  this  error. 
They  are  mainly  guides  in  conducting  information  les- 
sons, which  reveal  no  trace  of  Pestalozzi's  aim.  The 
English  Education  Department  wisely  eliminated  ob- 
ject lessons  from  the  English  Code  in  1861,  and  con- 
tinued the  proscription  for  twenty  years,  till  the  prin- 
ciples of  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel  were  better  under- 
stood. Pestalozzi's  aim  is  now  more  widely  understood 
both  in  England  and  America,  although  there  is  still 
a  large  amount  of  "  object-lesson  "  work  of  a  character 
inferior  to  that  done  by  the  great  founder  of  the  meth- 
od.   Froebel  gave  material  to  the  child  to  arouse  and  de- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBBL'S  SYSTEM.      21 


velop  its  creative  faculties  and  to  provide  varied  and 
definite  experiences  for  it.  The  highest  use  that  can 
be  made  of  material  is  to  make  it  the  basis  of  the  en- 
hirgement  of  the  mind  and  the  development  of  original- 
ity. Froebel  used  it  for  these  purposes.  His  aim  was 
not  mind  storing,  nor  the  increase  of  strength  in  the 
receptive  powers  of  the  mind.  He  recognised  the  need 
of  mind  storing  and  faculty  training,  but  he  saw  that 
he  could  secure  these  advantages  most  definitely  and 
most  naturally  by  making  them  essential  processes  in 
a  wider,  higher  ideal.  Creative  self-activity  was  Froe- 
bel's  inclusive  ideal.  All  subordinate  ideals  are  bound- 
ed by  limitations  of  interest.  Mind  storing  as  mind 
storing  loses  its  charm,  faculty  training  as  laculty  train- 
ing ceases  to  have  arousing  power,  unless  it  is  related  to 
some  greater  design.  Creative  self-activity  is  at  once 
the  most  natural,  the  most  comprehensive,  and  the 
most  stimulating  mental  occupation.  Having  realized 
this  as  Froebel  did  with  great  clearness,  he  used  objects 
not  merely  for  investigation  but  for  rearrangement,  re- 
adjustment, and  reconstruction  in  order  to  represent 
and  express  the  conceptions  and  designs  of  the  child 
itself.  He  accomplishes  mind  storing  and  faculty  train- 
ing more  thoroughly  than  Pestalozzi,  and  at  the  same 
lime  he  uses  material  things  as  agencies  for  self-revela- 
tion and  self-expression.  Many  teachers  have  used  ob- 
jects to  promote  learning.  Pestalozzi  asked.  What  pow- 
ers can  I  define  and  develop  by  objects?  Froebel  said:  I 
sliall  lead  the  child  to  express  his  own  conceptions  with 
real  things.  Learning,  defining,  doing,  are  the  three 
steps  in  his  evolutionary  sequence.  The  third  includes 
the  other  two. 


22 


PROKBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I    ;; 


I    i; 


Manual  Training. — Froebel  was  the  founder  of  the 
rational  system  of  manual  training.  The  world  did  no^ 
at  first  understand  his  views  in  regard  to  manual  train- 
ing. The  most  advanced  schools  have  yet  barely  reached 
his  advanced  ideals.  The  utilitarian  aspect  of  manual 
training  has  dwarfed  the  conceptions  of  educators  until 
recent  years  in  studying  the  subject.  This  view  did  not 
influence  Froebel.  He  knew  that  what  is  philosophical- 
ly true  must  be  at  the  same  time  most  practical.  He 
placed  manual  training  on  an  educational  instead  of  an 
economic  or  industrial  basis.  He  made  the  hand  the 
chief  agent  in  developing  the  mind.  The  use  of  mate- 
rial things  to  represent  or  express  the  original  concep- 
tions of  the  child  affords  the  best  possible  opportunities 
for  developing  the  child's  creative  power  and  executive 
ability,  for  co-ordinating  its  brain,  and  for  revealing 
to  it  the  fact  that  it  has  power  to  mould  and  use  the 
material  world  around  it.  For  all  these  ideals  in  regard 
to  manual  training  we  are  indebted  to  Froebel.  He  val- 
ued the  inner  results  of  manual  training  in  the  child 
more  than  the  outer  material  products. 

All  the  advancement  made  in  educational  thought 
concerning  manual  training  has  been  made  toward 
Froebel's  views,  and  he  is  still  the  leader.  From  trade 
schools,  which  were  as  far  as  possible  from  FroebePs 
ideal,  teachers  have  slowly  passed  through  the  stages  of 
using  manual  training  for  economic  purposes,  till  at 
length  the  most  progressive  have  grasped  his  conception 
— that  manual  training  is  thought  expression,  and  an 
important  process  in  the  child's  mental  and  moral  devel- 
opment. 

Froebel  differed  radically  from  his  successors  in  re- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      23 


gard  to  tlic  period  of  the  child's  life  when  manual  train- 
ing is  of  greatest  educational  value.  Blinded  by  the 
industrial  ideal,  they  gave  manual  training  only  to  the 
highest  classes,  and  therefore  necessarily  to  compara- 
tively few.  He  prepared  a  system  adapted  to  the  young- 
est children,  and  for  all  children,  girls  as  well  as  boys. 
Here,  too,  the  modern  leaders  have  their  faces  turned 
toward  Froebel. 

Very  few  have  yet  caught  a  glimpse  of  Froebel's: 
highest  thought  about  manual  training.  He  made  it 
the  operative  basis  of  spiritual  evolution.  The  revela- 
tion of  the  creative  power  of  humanity  is  the  surest 
basis  for  the  progressive  achievement  of  unity  between 
humanity  and  God.  By  manual  training  the  boy  is 
planting  in  his  own  nature  the  germs  of  the  vital 
thought  that  he  has  power  "  to  give  body  to  spirit  and 
form  to  thought." 

The  Educational  Value  of  Play. — While  Froebel  was 
not  the  first  to  see  the  educational  value  of  play,  he  was 
the  first  to  make  play  an  essential  part  of  school  work. 
Many  educators — Plato,  Quintilian,  Fenelon,  Locke, 
Richter,  and  others — had  recognised  the  educational 
importance  of  play,  and  had  written  wisely  about  the 
subject.  A  great  wave  of  interest  in  play  as  a  factor  in 
the  physical  development  of  the  race  swept  over  Ger- 
many during  the  life  of  Froebel.  It  was  started  by 
Gutsmuths  in  1796  and  has  continued  to  increase  in 
power  for  a  century.  More  books  were  written  on  this 
subject  in  Germany  during  the  past  century  than  have 
been  written  about  play  in  all  other  countries  since  the 
world  began.  This  remarkable  interest  culminated  in 
th^  estaljlishment  of  public  playgrouu^s  throughout 


•  '1 


p- 


! !  ^11 


"T?' 


,1  i  i 


1 


24 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


Germany  nearly  a  century  after  Gutsmuths  began  his 
agitation.  These  playgrounds  are  not  for  mere  phys- 
ical exercise.  They  are  supervised  by  competent  men 
who  have  received  some  training  in  psychology,  and  who 
are  therefore  able  to  understand  the  relation  of  play  to 
human  growth. 

It  was  perfectly  natural  that  Froebel  should  be  in- 
fluenced by  the  great  play  movement  of  his  time,  and, 
having  his  interest  aroused,  he,  as  was  usual  with  him, 
at  once  proceeded  to  turn  his  theories  into  definite  edu- 
cational methods.  His  extraordinary  insight  into  the 
law  of  inner  connection  enabled  him  to  see  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  advantages  of  play  as  well  as  its  phys- 
ical benefits,  and  in  his  system  play  became  an  impor- 
tant element  in  the  complete  development  of  the  child. 
He  utilized  the  instinctive  tendency  to  play  as  a  factor 
in  the  training  of  the  child  without  robbing  the  play  of 
its  essential  element  of  spontaneity. 

The  Harmony  between  Spontaneity  and  Control. — 
FroebePs  educational  reforms  have  been  grasped  more 
generally  in  the  department  of  discipline  than  in  any 
other  department  of  school  work.  Yet,  even  here  he  is 
only  partially  understood.  The  feeling  that  underlies 
his  work  has  spread  much  more  rapidly  than  his 
thought,  but  the  practice  of  a  more  natural  and  more 
humane  discipline  is  making  the  revelation  of  his 
thought  more  complete. 

His  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of  the  child's  indi- 
viduality was  so  clear  that  restriction,  coercion,  and  the 
domination  of  the  teacher  were  at  once  removed  from 
the  list  of  his  disciplinary  agencies.  Restriction 
dwarfs,  coercion  blights,  and  domination  destroys  indi- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      25 


vidiiality,  and  therefore  Froebel  waged  against  them  a 
war  of  extermination.  He  refused  to  destroy  power  and 
character  in  the  effort  to  educate. 

His  comprehension  of  the  interrelationships  ex- 
isting between  all  the  truly  developing  processes  of 
Nature  made  him  decide  that,  even  between  essential 
freedom  and  desirable  control,  there  must  be  a  mediate 
course  that  produces  perfect  harmony,  so  he  sought 
the  "  perfect  law  of  liberty  "  that  he  might  guide  child- 
hood without  destroying  its  spontaneity. 

He  believed  so  thoroughly  in  the  law  of  evolution- 
ary development  through  successive  stages  of  human 
growth  that  he  did  not  expect  finished  character  in  a 
child.  He  was  satisfied  to  allow  to  little  children  a  con- 
dition of  liberty  which  shocked  the  martinets,  and 
shocks  some  of  them  still.  He  denied  that  anarchy  is 
caused  by  freedom,  but  asserted  strongly  that  it  is  the 
natural  result  of  enforced  control,  and  that  unnatural 
control,  especially  during  unconscious  childhood,  makes 
the  child  conscious  in  a  weakening  sense,  and  leads  to 
indi  '^erence  or  resistance  to  constituted  authority. 

he  found  self-activity  to  be  the  intermediary  pro- 
cess to  produce  harmony  between  spontaneity  and  con- 
trol, and  interest  to  be  the  motive  that  leads  to  self- 
activity  when  the  selfhood  has  not  been  made  passive 
by  arbitrary  control.  With  loving  sympathy  as  an  at- 
tractive power,  making  the  teacher  a  friend  instead  of 
a  domineering  autocrat,  and  with  the  interested  self- 
activity  of  the  child  as  the  central  thought  in  the  teach- 
er's philosophy,  he  knew  discipline  would  settle  itself 
in  a  natural  way.  He  refused  to  believe  that  children 
are  happier  when  they  are  doing  wrong  than  when 


2G 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


111! 


'i    W 


I        tl 


doing  right,  and  never  for  a  moment  doubted  that  the^ 
are  happier  when  engaged  in  appropriate  occupations 
than  when  idle. 

Starting  with  these  foundation  principles,  he  con- 
cluded that  the  true  inner  life  of  the  child  can  be  made 
to  grow,  as  the  inner  life  of  any  other  living  organ- 
ism grows,  by  placing  it  in  proper  conditions.  The 
teacher's  duty  is  like  the  gardener's — to  supply  the  de- 
sirable conditions.  The  natural  conditions  of  child 
growth  he  believed  to  be  love,  joyousness,  and  inter- 
ested occupation — ^mainly  self-activity.  He  insisted 
that  when  a  child  is  supplied  with  these  conditions  it 
is  unnatural  for  it  to  misbehave  if  its  health  is  good. 
Productivity  being,  according  to  his  philosophy,  the 
true  function  of  humanity,  he  reasoned  that  creative 
self-activity  is  the  most  perfect  source  of  human  happi- 
ness, and  the  only  rational  agency  in  truly  developing 
discipline. 

"  But  all  children  do  not  like  to  work,"  answers  the 
objector.  Better  say,  "All  children  do  not  like  to  do 
the  work  you  choose  for  them."  That  is  likely  to  be 
very  true.  The  wonder  is  that  any  of  them  like  work 
chosen  for  them  by  others,  and  to  which  they  are  driven 
by  the  authority  of  the  teacher.  Even  when  the  per- 
suasive power  is  the  witchery  of  loving  reverence  for 
the  teacher,  work  chosen  by  another  never  has  the  maxi- 
mum of  power  to  interest  or  develop,  and  can  not  long 
hold  the  attention  of  the  pupil  or  make  the  path 
of  duty  the  path  of  pleasure.  Froebel  had  no 
doubt  of  the  love  of  the  children  for  productive  work 
if  they  were  trained  to  plan  work  as  well  as  perform 
\t     "They  yield  themselves,'^  gaid  he,  "in  childlike 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM. 


trust  and  cheerfulness  to  their  formative  and  creative 
instinct." 

During  the  early  unconscious  period  of  the  child's 
development  Froebel  would  have  the  control  of  the 
mother  and  kindergartner  so  thoroughly  in  harmony 
with  the  spontaneity  of  the  child  as  not  to  be  felt  by  it. 
The  highest  disciplinary  skill  of  the  mother  or  kinder- 
gartner is  shown  by  the  transference  of  the  child's  inter- 
est from  evil  to  good  in  so  natural  a  way  that  the  child 
is  not  conscious  of  the  external  guiding  influence  in 
making  the  change  or  of  its  own  surrender  of  one 
interest  for  another.  To  be  conscious  of  the  direct  in- 
fluence would  make  it  a  follower  instead  of  an  inde- 
pendent agent. 

When  the  child  becomes  conscious  of  its  own  per- 
sonality the  teacher's  duty  is  still  to  maintain  the  har- 
mony between  control  and  spontaneity.  Now,  how- 
ever, both  the  control  and  the  spontaneity  should 
belong  to  the  pupil.  The  control  should  become  self- 
control,  and  this  should  be  developed,  first,  by  a  clear 
recognition  of  the  rights  of  others,  and,  second,  by  a 
realization  of  the  personal  advantages  resulting  from 
self-control  in  subordinating  the  undesirable  to  the  de- 
sirable in  one's  own  tendencies.  During  this  period 
the  teacher  should  be  the  confidential  friend  of  the  pu- 
pil, and  not  a  mere  dictator  to  whom  the  pupil  should 
render  unquestioning  obedience.  Exigencies  may  arise 
when  the  teacher  may  wisely  say  '  Thou  shalt "  or 
"  Thou  shalt  not,"  as  the  result  of  the  "  better  choice 
between  two  evils."  Such  an  incident  is  always  a  moral 
catastrophe,  and  the  wise  teacher  undoes  the  evil  so 
far  as  possible  whep  the  conditions  that  precipitated  tho 


IT 


28 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL    LAWS. 


ifi' 


'1, 


collision  have  passed  away.  During  the  reaction  in  the 
child's  nature  after  such  an  unfortunate  collision  it  is 
often  jiossible  for  the  loving  heart  of  the  teacher  to  find 
a  widened  entrance  to  the  heart  of  the  pupil.  Such  col- 
lisions are  most  disastrous  when  rebellion  is  aroused 
by  dictatorial  authority. 

Froebel's  idea  of  a  unity  or  harmony  between  control 
and  spontaneity  is  worthy  of  most  careful  study.  When 
it  is  fully  understood  the  discipline  of  all  schools  will 
be  placed  on  a  new  basis,  and  discipline  will  become 
what  it  should  be — a  most  important  agency  in  the 
formation  of  character. 

Women  as  Teachers. — Froebel  made  a  radical  reform 
in  educational  work  by  his  recognition  of  woman  as  the 
proper  educator  of  childhood.  Pestalozzi  had  pleaded 
for  a  motherhood  of  culture  and  sympathy.  Herder 
had  said  to  women:  "  Meditate  upon  and  educate  (for 
you  alone  can  do  it)  a  happy  posterity."  Froebel  did 
much  more  than  plead  with  mothers.  He  planned  a  sys- 
tematic course  of  training  for  them  to  give  to  their 
children.  With  his  usual  habit  of  transforming  insight 
into  attainment,  he  first  saw  that  "  the  destiny  of  na- 
tions lies  far  more  in  the  hands  of  women — the  mothers 
— than  in  the  possessors  of  power,"  and  he  then  made 
practical  plans  to  qualify  women  for  their  work  and 
guide  them  in  it.  A  favourite  motto  of  his,  which  he 
frequently  emphasized,  was:  "We  must  educate  wom- 
en, who  are  the  educators  of  the  race,  else  the  new  gen- 
eration can  not  accomplish  its  task."  He  said  to  the 
Baroness  von  Marenholz-Bulow:  "Women  are  my  natu- 
ral allies,  and  they  ought  to  help  me,  for  I  bring  to 
them  what  shall  relieve  them  of  their  inner  and  outer 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      29 


fetters,  terminate  their  tutelage,  and  restore  their  dig- 
nity with  that  of  still  undervalued  childhood."  He 
repeated  the  same  views  to  Herr  von  Wydenbrugk: 
"  Women  and  children  are  the  most  oppressed  and  neg- 
lected of  all.  They  have  not  yet  been  fully  recognised 
in  their  dignity  as  parts  of  human  society.  If  progress 
and  a  greater  degree  of  freedom  depend  largely  upon 
the  degree  of  universal  culture,  then  it  is  woman  to 
whom  God  and  Nature  have  pointed  out  the  first  edu- 
cational office  in  the  family,  upon  whom  this  progress 
especially  depends."  In  conversation  with  his  dear 
friend  Middendorff,  he  said:  "  Women  are  to  recognise 
that  childhood  and  womanliness  (the  care  of  childhood 
and  the  life  of  women)  are  inseparably  connected,  that 
they  form  a  unit,  and  that  God  and  Nature  have  placed 
the  protection  of  the  human  plant  in  their  hands.  The 
culture  of  individuals,  and  therefore  of  the  whole  na- 
tion, depends  in  great  part  on  the  earliest  care  of  child- 
hood. On  that  account  women,  as  one  half  of  mankind, 
have  to  undertake  the  most  important  part  of  the  prob- 
lems of  the  time — problems  that  men  are  not  able  to 
solve.  If  but  one  half  of  the  work  be  accomplished, 
then  our  epoch,  like  all  others,  will  fail  to  reach  the 
appointed  goal.  As  educators  of  mankind,  the  women 
of  the  present  time  have  the  highest  duty  to  perform, 
while  hitherto  they  have  been  scarcely  more  than  the 
beloved  mothers  of  human  beings." 

"  Tell  women  to  take  part  immediately  by  their 
educational  activity  in  the  destiny  of  nations;  tell  them 
that  the  recognition  of  the  dignity  of  the  female  sex  de- 
pends upon  this.  The  sex  must  be  torn  not  only  from 
its  instinctive  and  passive,  but  from  its  merely  personal 


fU  ;,:| 


. 


111-. 


so 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


ii 


m 


\ 

1 

f 

i 

1 
.?  i||| 

j 

f 

\ 

I 

L 

i  '1 

life,  in  order  to  live  as  a  conscious  member  of  humanity, 
The  consciousness  of  its  elevated  life  work,  and  the  ca- 
pacity truly  to  accomplish  it,  will  do  more  to  bring  on 
the  kingdom  of  God  than  all  other  means." 

His  Mother  Play  was  prepared  for  mothers  that 
they  might  lay  in  infancy  the  only  sure  foundations  for 
intellectual  and  moral  growth  by  defining  the  sensa- 
tions, directing  the  emotions,  and  extending  the  experi- 
ences of  their  children.  He  hoped  to  have  this  book 
intelligently  studied  by  mothers  everywhere.  The  great 
movement  now  going  on  in  Europe  and  America  in 
favour  of  the  establishment  of  mothers'  classes  and  clubs 
for  the  study  of  The  Mother  Play  gives  hope  that  his 
plan  may  soon  be  realized. 

The  greatest  step  made  toward  the  full  recognition 
of  woman's  individuality  and  responsibility  since  the 
time  of  Christ  was  made  when  Froebel  founded  his 
kindergartens  and  made  women  educators  outside  the 
home — educators  by  profession.  This  momentous  re- 
form gave  the  first  great  impetus  to  the  movement  in 
favour  of  woman's  freedom  and  provided  for  the  gen- 
eral advance  of  humanity  to  a  higher  plane  by  giving 
childhood  more  considerate,  more  sympathetic,  and 
more  stimulating  teachers. 

Symbolism. — One  of  Froebel's  strongest  claims  to 
the  title  of  the  "  psychologist  of  childhood  "  is  his  re- 
markable insight  into  the  power  of  children  to  recognise 
analogies  and  resemblances,  to  clothe  even  inanimate 
things  with  life,  to  give  personality  to  everything,  to  see 
hidden  meanings  and  relationships — in  short,  to  see 
spiritual  associations.  This  led  him  to  give  symbolism 
pp  promi|iejxt  a  place  w  his  system^  a^d  this  element  in 


CHARACTERISTICS  OP  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      8J 

his  educational  work  distinguishes  him  as  much  as  any 
other  principle  from  the  educators  who  preceded  him 
rs  well  as  from  most  of  his  successors.  By  trying  to 
remember  the  spiritual  insights  of  their  own  earliest 
years  and  by  carefully  watching  the  manifestations  of 
the  dawning  associations  in  the  minds  of  very  young 
children,  many  teachers  and  educational  investigators 
are  beginning  to  realize  the  importance  of  idealizing 
or  spiritualizing  things,  actions,  and  stories  for  the  little 
ones  as  a  part  in  their  highest  education — spiritual  edu-. 
cation.  No  one  doubts  that  the  spiritual  nature  is  capa- 
ble of  more  limitless  development  than  either  the  phys- 
ical or  the  intellectual.  It  is  impossible  to  overestimate 
the  good  influence  of  a  complete  spiritual  develop- 
ment on  the  culture  of  the  other  departments  of  our 
natures  or  the  loss  to  humanity  at  large  resulting  from 
the  failure  to  give  definite  training  to  the  spiritual  pow- 
ers. We  pass  through  life  almost  in  touch  with  mo- 
mentous spiritual  problems  that  are  never  revealed  to 
us  because  our  spiritual  insight  has  not  been  developed, 
or  has  been  weakened  by  neglect.  FroebePs  recognition 
of  the  law  of  continuity  showed  him  the  importance  of 
laying  the  basis  for  future  growth  in  early  childhood. 
He  was  especially  anxious  to  develop  spiritual  insight  in 
tlie  discovery  of  analogies,  so  as  to  prepare  for  the  reve- 
lation of  universal  unity  in  manhood.  This  he  believed 
to  be  the  great  purpose  of  education.  This  gives  the 
highest  reason  for  the  cultivation  of  the  imagination. 

Miss  Blow,  in  her  profoundly  philosophic  \iork  on 
Symbolic  Education,  summarizes  Froebel's  s3rmbolism 
in  the  kindergarten  as  "  an  endeavour  through  the  use 
of  typical  facts  and  poetic  analogies  to  stir  the  child 


-m 


i 


32 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I        ,! 


I 

1 

J 

!      h 

,i 

,     i 
i 

I 

11  ^ 

":■      ■■:. 

i 

1                       .,: 

'       't 

!    i  'if 

i 

^      1    1 

I     i]    ^ 

with  far-away  presentiments  of  his  ideal  nature,  his 
spiritual  relationships,  and  his  divine  destiny."  In  the 
planning  of  his  whole  kindergarten  system  of  gifts,  oc- 
cupations, plays,  games,  and  stories  he  kept  in  view  the 
cultivation  of  the  power  to  discover  analogies.  The  in- 
dividual gifts  themselves  and  the  manifold  things  they 
are  made  to  form  or  represent  are  used  by  the  children 
to  typify  the  varied  visions  of  a  child's  imagination. 
The  continuity  insisted  upon  by  Froebel  in  the  use  of 
the  gifts  by  evolving  one  structure  or  article  or  form 
from  another  without  resolving  the  first  into  its  con- 
stituent elements  and  the  perfect  rational  sequence  ex- 
isting among  the  gifts  themselves  were  intended  to 
foreshadow  in  the  mind  of  the  child  the  related  con- 
tinuity between  the  stages  of  the  life  of  man.  In  the 
plays  and  games  every  relationship  of  the  child  to  its 
home,  society.  Nature,  and  God  are  exemplified;  the 
occupations  and  some  of  the  games  prepare  the  child 
for  the  comprehension  in  later  life  of  the  interdepend- 
ence of  all  grades  of  society,  and  lay  the  foundation  of 
the  reverence  that  one  class  should  have  for  the  honest 
workers  in  all  other  fields  of  effort;  and  a  still  higher 
kind  of  symbolism  is  found  in  the  games  that  illustrate 
spiritual  truths  and  ethical  principles.  His  stories,  too, 
are  used  in  a  similar  way  to  fill  the  child's  mind  and 
spiritual  nature  with  the  germ -structures  around  which 
its  spiritual  insights  and  ethical  character  may  estab- 
lish themselves. 

The  interpretation  of  the  spiritual  through  the  real 
is  a  definite  stage  in  spiritual  evolution.  It  is  quite  as 
essential  to  hava  apperceptive  centres  for  spiritual 
growth  as  for  intellectual  development  and  the  assimila- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.      33 

tion  of  knowledge.  By  placing  the  child  in  proper  con- 
ditions, bringing  it  in  contact  with  Nature,  directing 
its  activities  in  lines  that  will  reveal  unity,  evolution, 
and  logical  sequence,  it  is  possible  to  foresliadow  dur- 
ing the  child's  unconscious  period  the  deepest  mysteries 
of  its  intellectual  and  spiritual  life.  Froebel's  greatest 
work.  The  Mother  Play,  is  worthy  of  careful  study  not 
only  by  mothers  and  kindergartners,  but  by  all  teachers, 
as  a  philosophical  foundation  for  the  complete  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  awakening  and  evolution  of  child- 
hood. 

Froebel  gave  a  needed  lesson  to  all  teachers  in  public 
schools  and  in  Sunday  schools  by  his  instructions,  that 
the  inner  symbolism  of  the  child's  work  or  play  should 
not  be  brought  specifically  into  the  child's  conscious- 
ness by  any  formal  explanations  or  moralising  by  the 
teacher  or  kindergartner.  Evil  always  results  from 
adult  interference  with  the  natural  evolution  of  un- 
consciousness into  consciousness.  Symbolism  is  in  har- 
mony with  child  nature,  and  in  due  time  the  foreshad- 
owed spiritual  ideals  will  reveal  themselves  in  the  child's 
mind  and  life.  The  function  of  adult  wisdom  is  to 
provide  the  conditions  for  implanting  the  symbolic 
germs  of  vital  principles  in  the  mind  of  unconscious 
childhood.  The  unfolding  of  the  germs  into  control- 
ling principles  should  be  the  work  of  later  years.  The 
habit  of  "  pointing  the  moral "  of  tale  or  incident  is  a 
kindred  error  to  the  practice  of  forcing  mature  theo- 
ries of  religion  or  adult  practices  of  the  child.  Miss 
Blow  admirably  expresses  this  idea  in  the  sentence: 
"Froebel  knows  that  the  mind  may  be  trusted  to 
universalize  its  ideas,  and  leaves  to  its  own  alchemy 


■■■}, 


84 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


the  transmutation  of  the  symbol  into  the  reality  sym- 
bolized." 

Froebel  wrote  comparatively  little  under  the  title 
"  Symbolism,"  but  he  made  it  an  element  in  all  his  early 
education.  What  he  said  is  sufficient  to  show  how  much 
importance  he  attached  to  it: 

"  Childhood  can  only  be  led  through  symbols  to 
the  understanding  of  truth  and  the  understanding  of 
itself.    It  needs  symbolic  action." 

"  The  presentiment  of  truth  always  goes  before  rec- 
ognition of  it." 

"  I  have  not  only  forms  for  the  child's  eyes,  which 
are  to  make  him  acquainted  with  the  outer  world  which 
surrounds  him;  I  have  symbols  which  unlock  his  soul 
for  the  thought  or  spirit  which  is  innate  in  everything 
that  has  come  out  of  God's  creative  mind.  If  the 
ripened  mind  is  to  know  and  understand  tliis  thought, 
its  embodied  image  must  make  an  impression  upon  the 
yet  unconscious  soul  of  the  child,  and  leave  behind  it 
forms  which  can  serve  as  analogies  to  the  intellectual 
ordering  of  things." 

Some  attempts  have  been  made,  especially  in  Sun- 
day schools,  to  create  an  unnatural,  conventional  sym- 
bolism by  establishing  a  code  of  material  symbols  to 
represent  spiritual  ideals.  It  is  an  error  that  violates 
every  fundamental  principle  of  evolution  and  self-ac- 
tivity to  try  to  fit  adult  ideas  of  symbolism  to  the 
child's  mind. 

The  Comprehensiveness  of  FroebeVs  Philosophy. — 
Those  who  have  been  disposed  to  regard  Froebel  as  a 
mere  enthusiast  guided  chiefly  by  his  feelings  should 
be  led  to  a  due  appreciation  of  his  greatness  by  the 


CHARACTERISTICS  OP  FROEBEL'S  SYSTEM.     35 


fact  that  he  first  clearly  recognised  several  great  truths 
which  since  he  revealed  them  have  become  the  central 
elements  in  the  writings  of  the  most  philosophical  in- 
dustrial, social,  and  moral  reformers. 

Dr.  Stanley  Hall  says:  "  Froebel's  philosophy  of  edu- 
cation is  to  me,  on  the  whole,  the  best  we  have,  in  that 
it  brings  out  more  elements  and  gives  them  a  truer  pro- 
jmrtion.  The  root  and  spirit  of  Christianity  are  in  it; 
so  is  the  spirit  of  Bacon  and  Comenius;  so  is  the  chief 
motif  of  the  (Jerman  idealistic  movement  with  its 
seasoning  of  what  is  now  sometimes  called  the  higher 
])antheism.  He  recognised  in  full  the  value  of  the 
empirical  and  the  deductive  schools." 

Mr.  Bowen  has  shown  that  Carlyle's  central  truths 
regarding  man's  social  and  industrial  evolution,  the 
unity  of  humanity  and  God  and  the  revelation  of  God 
in  humanity,  were  expounded  by  Froebel;  and  that  quo- 
tations might  be  made  from  Carlyle's  works  which  even 
close  students  of  Froebel  might  believe  to  have  been 
written  by  him. 

Mr.  Hailman  notes  the  similarity  of  the  teachings 
of  Herbert  Spencer  and  Froebel  in  regard  to  the  law  of 
unification. 

Dr.  Harris  says:  **  Froebel  is  the  educational  re- 
former who  has  done  more  ilian  all  the  rest  to  make  valid 
in  education  what  the  Germans  call  the  developing 
method." 

Mr.  Bowen  says:  "  Froebel  is  the  true  psychologist 
of  childhood.  Froebel  alone  translates  psychological 
principles  into  psychological  practice." 

Dr.  Harris  says:  "  Froebel  sees  better  than  other  edu- 
cators the  true  means  of  educating  the  feelings,  and  es- 


»  h. 


^  ^' 


36 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


i\ 


pecially  the  religious  feelings  "  ;  and  Dr.  Hall,  in  speak- 
ing of  Froebers  recognition  of  the  fundamental  nature 
of  feeling  as  the  foundation  of  intellect  and  will,  says, 
"  It  is  a  great  thought  that  now  dominates  psychology." 

Dr.  Harris,  speaking  of  another  phase  of  his  edu- 
cational philosophy — a  most  important  one  that  Froe- 
bel  really  brought  into  human  consciousness — says: 
"  There  is  no  philosophy  for  the  young  woman  io  he 
compared  with  the  philosophy  that  Froebel  has  put  it 
his  work  on  the  mother's  plays  and  games  with  her  chu 
dren." 

In  the  recognition  of  God  in  Nature  as  the  life  in  it 
and  behind  it  and  the  evolutionary  force  in  all  things, 
organic  and  inorganic,  Froebel  has  only  one  twin  seer, 
Wordsworth,  who  gave  to  the  world  in  exquisite  song 
what  Froebel  a  little  earlier  taught  in  prose. 

Even  the  religious  teachings  that  at  first  led  the 
theologians  to  consider  Froebel  unorthodox  are  now  rec- 
ognised as  the  most  vital  truths  revealed  by  Chris 
Froebel  was  among  the  first  to  free  religion  from  1 
formalism  and  the  dogmatism  that  sapped  its  vitality. 

The  surest  proof  of  true  greatness  in  a  philosopher  is 
to  find  the  leaders  of  the  century  succeeding  his  death 
climbing  toward  the  light  he  saw  and  recognising  his  dis- 
coveries as  everlasting  and  transforming  truth. 


CHAPTER   II. 


PESTALOZZI,   HEBBART,   AND  FBOEBEL. 


The  "  new  education  "  was  undoubtedly  revealed  to 
the  world  chiefly  by  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and  Froebel. 
If  all  other  educational  literature  were  destroyed,  the 
principles  of  these  three  men  would  reveal  all  the  vital 
forces  that  are  moulding  the  educational  systems  and 
methods  of  to-day,  both  in  aims  and  operations.  The 
leaders  of  the  epoch  to  which  they  belong  seemed  to  be 
dominated  by  a  similar  spirit  of  investigation  into  the 
evolution  of  the  human  soul  with  the  view  of  the  gen- 
eral improvement  of  the  race.  A  brief  comparison  of 
the  systems  and  aims  of  *  hese  prophets  of  education  will 
aid  in  understanding  the  relative  value  of  Froebel's 
work. 

With  this  end  in  view  Froebel  should  be  compared 
with  Pestalozzi  and  Herbart  separately. 

Pestalozzi  was  instinctive  and  inspirational,  Froebel 
was  philosophical  and  investigative.  Pestalozzi  often 
applied  correct  principles  without  being  conscious  of 
their  underlying  philosophy  or  their  adaptation  to  the 
nature  of  the  child.  Froebel  studied  the  child  for  thirty 
years — in  its  mother's  arms,  on  the  playground,  and  as 
it  exhibited  its  love  of  the  beautiful  and  the  wonder- 

87 


m 


38 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


f ul  in  Nature.  He  also  traced  the  development  of  the 
race,  and  compared  it  with  the  progressive  unfolding 
of  the  powers  of  the  child  as  it  grew  to  manhood.  Hav- 
ing exhaustively  studied  the  child  and  history,  he  used 
the  results  of  investigation  and  experience  as  a  basis 
for  his  educational  system.  His  foundation  ideal  was  to 
bring  the  conscious  educational  processes  of  the  schools 
into  perfect  harmony  with  the  processes  by  which  God 
develops  the  child  so  wonderfully,  both  in  knowledge 
and  in  power,  during  the  period  of  unconscious  educa- 
tion before  it  goes  to  school. 

Pestalozzi  aim^d  to  give  definite  ideas  by  the  use  of 
real  things  as  a  foundation  for  intellectual  strength. 
Froebel  provided  the  means  of  training  the  emotions  as 
well  as  the  sensations,  and  of  guiding  them  in  the  for- 
mat! n  of  character  by  right  self -activity. 

Pestalozzi's  pupils  observed  and  imitated  either  with 
voice  or  hand;  Froebel's  children  observed  and  in- 
vented. 

Pestalozzi's  pupils  were  reproductive;  Froebel's 
were  creative. 

Pestalozzi's  pupils  were  trained  in  expression;  Froe- 
bel's  in  self-expression. 

Pestalozzi  was  satisfied  with  productive  activity; 
Froebel  required  productive  self-activity.  Carlyle 
caught  FroebePs  creative  idea,  when  he  said  to  each 
individual:  "  Be  no  longer  a  chaos,  but  a  world  or  at  least 
a  v.^orldkin.  Produce!  Produce!  Were  it  but  the  piti- 
fullest  infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  product,  produce  it  in 
God's  name! " 

Both  these  great  teachers  kncjw  that  the  religious 
nature  of  man  is  the  highest;  but  Froebel  realized  with 


} 

PESTALOZn,  HERBART,  AND  FROEBEL.   39 

much  greater  clearness  than  Pestalozzi  the  fact  that 
spiritual  growth  must  come  from  within,  and  that  the 
spiritual  nature  of  the  child  finds  its  satisfaction  and 
growth  in  the  symbolism  of  the  real  things  around  it. 
In  his  Mother  Play  he  has  given  a  definite  and  consecu- 
tive system,  which  is  marvellous  in  its  comprehensive- 
ness and  beauty,  for  defining  the  child's  pure  emotions, 
for  enlarging  its  spiritual  view,  and  for  incidentally 
awakening  its  conceptions  of  its  relationships  and  du- 
ties toward  Nature,  home,  society,  and  God. 

Pestalozzi  was  an  intuitional  philanthropist,  who 
used  education  to  make  men  wiser  and  happier.  Froe- 
bel  was  an  educational  philosopher,  who  aimed  through 
education  to  make  men  grow  forever  "  consciously  to- 
ward God." 

Pestalozzi's  ideal  was,  I  must  do  good  to  the  child. 
Froebel's  ideal  was,  I  must  increase  good  through  the 
child. 

Herbart  and  Froebel  were  both  more  scientific  than 
Pestalozzi  in  their  methods  of  dealing  with  the  subject 
of  education.  They  worked  out  their  systems  logically 
and  constructively;  he  was  emotional  and  instinctive. 

In  their  study  of  the  child  as  the  basis  of  a  sound 
pedagogical  system,  Herbart  and  Froebel  were  in  har- 
mony in  accepting  the  parallelism  between  the  progress 
of  the  race  and  the  development  of  the  child.  This  idea 
was  not  original  with  either  of  them.  Many  of  the 
ablest  philosophers  and  theologians  have  held  this  view, 
and  Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi  had  brought  it  within  the 
range  of  educational  discussion  before  the  time  of 
Herbart  and  Froebel.  Froebel  made  more  use  than 
Herbart  of  this  idea  of  similarity  between  the  culture 


I  I 


40 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I  I 


I  f: 


epochs  in  the  growth  of  the  individual  and  the  race.  It 
aided  Herbart  to  decide  what  instruction  is  best  suited 
to  the  child,  the  youth,  the  man,  at  different  stages  of 
his  development;  to  Froebel  it  helped  to  reveal  not  only 
suitable  material  for  instruction,  but  proper  processes  or 
occupations  by  which  the  child,  the  youth,  and  the  man 
should  define  and  increase  knowledge  and  power  and 
transform  them  into  character. 

Both  Herbart  and  Froebel  studied  the  child  in  order 
to  lay  down  a  system  of  education  that  would  help  to 
ennoble  man  and  enable  him  to  work  out  his  highest 
destiny.  They  were  fully  in  accord  in  regard  to  the 
true  aim  of  education.  Both  made  the  development  of 
moral  character  the  great  purpose  of  all  education,  and 
their  study  of  the  child  was  made  to  find  the  surest  way 
to  reach  this  desired  end.  There  was  a  radical  differ- 
ence, however,  in  their  attitude  toward  the  child.  Her- 
bart studied  the  child  to  find  the  best  that  could  be  done 
for  it;  Froebel  studied  it  to  learn  how  it  could  be  aided 
in  working  out  its  own  best  development.  Herbart 
magnified  the  work  of  the  teacher;  Froebel  magni- 
fied the  work  of  the  child.  Herbart  made  instruction, 
and  Froebel  made  self-activity,  the  source  and  cause  of 
growth  in  knowledge  and  character. 

The  difference  of  view  point  leads  to  the  chief  dis- 
tinction between  the  work  of  these  two  great  education- 
ists. Herbart  discusses  the  work  of  the  teacher,  and 
shows  what  should  be  taught  to  the  child,  when  it 
should  be  taught,  and  why  it  should  be  taught,  with 
occasional  suggestions  as  to  how  it  should  be  taught. 
Froebel,  on  the  other  hand,  considers  chiefly  the  work 
pf  the  child,  and  endeavours  to  lay  down  a  complete  sys* 


)l  f .; 


PESTALOZZI,  HEBBART,  AND  FROEBEL.         41 


tern  of  education  by  which  the  child's  entire  nature  may 
be  called  into  vigorous  exercise.  Froebel  keeps  con- 
stantly in  mind  the  work  of  the  teacher,  and  he  has 
clearly  defined  ideas  regarrling  the  order  in  which 
knowledge  should  be  presented  to  the  unfolding  mind; 
but  the  basis  of  his  pedagogical  system  is  growth 
through  self-activity  of  the  child.  He  discusses  the 
same  problems  as  Herbart,  but  he  reveals  the  child's 
part  in  the  work  of  education,  and  tries  to  show  the 
teacher  how  to  guide  the  child  in  doing  its  own  work 
without  interfering  with  its  spontaneity.  Herbart  im- 
proved the  work  of  his  predecessors,  Froebel  revolu- 
tionized it. 

Herbart  summarizes  his  entire  pedagogical  system  in 
two  brief  sentences:  "  Instruction  will  form  the  circle 
of  thought,  and  education  the  character.  The  last  is 
nothing  without  the  first.  Herein  is  contained  the 
whole  sum  of  my  pedagogy." 

Having  laid  this  foundation,  he  is  naturally  led  to 
rely  on  the  doctrine  of  interest  as  the  central  element 
in  his  pedagogical  system.  Interest,  desire,  action,  will, 
is  the  order  of  the  sequence  of  human  development  in 
his  psychology.  The  doctrine  of  interest  has  been  ex- 
pounded by  Herbart  in  a  way  that  leaves  little  room  for 
enrichment  by  his  successors.  With  him  interest  is  no 
passing  fancy,  no  temporary  attraction  to  things  or 
subjects.  It  covers  the  whole  ground  of  knowledge  and 
of  sympathy:  "knowledge  of  the  manifold,  of  its  law, 
and  of  its  aesthetic  relations;  sympathy  with  humanity, 
with  society,  and  the  relation  of  both  to  the  highest 
Being."  He  describes  interest  as  "  the  joy  of  life  and 
the  elevation  of  soul  which  knows  how  to  part  from 


nfri 


f  U 


J 


42 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


ill 


1;  ^iii 


M 


life."  He  makes  it,  in  the  language  of  one  of  his  great- 
est interpreters,  Ufer,  "  the  root  of  volition."  He  has 
been  severely  criticised  for  making  action  lead  to  will, 
instead  of  accepting  the  commonly  received  idea  that 
will  leads  to  action,  but  those  who  dissent  most  strongly 
from  his  views  regarding  the  relationship  of  will  and 
action  may  learn  quite  as  much  from  his  pedagogical 
use  of  interest  as  those  who  are  his  most  ardent  ad- 
mirers. Opponents  as  well  as  disciples  may  have  their 
ideas  enlarged  and  defined  by  Herbart's  discussion  of 
interest,  many-sidedness  of  interest,  proportionate 
many-sidedness,  empirical  interest,  speculative  interest, 
aesthetic  interest,  sympathetic  interest,  social  interest, 
religious  interest,  absorption,  and  reflection. 

Herbart's  system  made  instruction  the  basis  of  vir- 
tue. Ufer  crystallizes  Herbart's  teaching  on  this  point 
in  the  sentence:  "When  instruction  has  generated 
knowledge  that  incites  to  volition  and  that  is  controlled 
by  ethical  ideas  its  task  is  done." 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  essential  it  was  for  Herbart  to 
insist  on  apperception  and  correlation  or  co-ordination 
of  studies.  Apperception  to  Herbart  meant  more  than 
the  accumulation  of  knowledge,  or  even  of  new  knowl- 
edge allied  to  what  was  already  in  the  mind.  It  meant 
mind  awakening,  mind  activity,  mind  defining,  and 
mind  enlargement,  not  by  accretion  but  by  assimila- 
tion of  the  new  knowledge  with  the  corresponding  mind 
contents  to  form  a  greater  mind  content  which  should 
be  a  unity  and  not  an  aggregation  of  related  ideas. 

The  law  of  unity  led  Froebel  to  insist  even  more 
strongly  than  Herbart  on  the  perfect  articulation  and 
harmonious  correlation  of  studies.     He  criticised  se- 


PESTALOZZI,  HERBART,  AND  FROEBEL.         43 


Id 


verely  the  lack  of  unity  in  the  studies  of  the  school  he 
attended  when  a  boy,  and  endeavoured  to  remedy  this 
defect  in  a  school  in  which  he  taught  while  a  student 
in  Berlin.  In  all  his  after  work  he  made  unity  an  es- 
sential. He  m'^'le  this  law  of  unity  the  basis  of  his 
kindergarten  system.  Every  detail  of  his  system  in  the 
gifts,  occupations,  games,  songs,  and  stories  is  related 
to  this  central  thought.  To  those  who  see  behind  the 
material  and  the  occupations,  the  kindergarten  is  the 
objective  embodiment  of  true  concentration,  and  Froe- 
bel  strongly  urged  that  this  same  principle  of  correlation 
should  dominate  the  arrangement  of  school  programmes 
and  the  methods  of  teaching  in  the  schools. 

Frocbel's  view  of  the  human  soul  was  directly  oppo- 
site to  that  held  by  Herbart.  Froebel  believed  that  the 
child  has  within  him  a  self-active  soul — an  element  of 
divinity,  the  selfhood  or  individuality  of  the  child — and 
that  this  develops  by  being  put  forth  in  gaining  a 
knowledge  of  its  environment  and  in  performing  the 
duties  pertaining  to  its  social  relationships.  These  opin- 
ions led  him  to  discover  his  law  of  spontaneity  or  self- 
activity,  which  he  made  the  underlying  principle  of  all 
his  developing  and  teaching  processes  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  in  the  school. 

He  did  not  mean  by  this  law  of  spontaneity  that 
the  child  has  to  acquire  all  knowledge  by  itself  with- 
out the  aid  of  the  teacher.  He  gave  instruction  its  true 
value.  He  did  mean,  however,  that  no  instruction 
really  becomes  a  content  of  the  child's  mind  in  the 
highest  sense  until  the  child  has  made  a  creative  use 
of  it  in  some  way.  Froebel's  lessons  always  have  two 
partS;  the  instructive  and  the  creative.     The  teacher 


p 


Tf 


44 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


IJ.! 


(      ' 


sr  " 


gives  new  instruction,  and  immediately  the  child  makes 
an  original  use  or  application  or  modification  of  it. 
In  this  way,  by  his  law  of  self-activity,  Froebel  secures 
to  the  fullest  possible  extent  active,  co-operative  inter- 
est, and  the  most  productive  apperception.  The  child 
must  be  more  interested  and  more  definitely  attentive 
when  using  knowledge  than  it  can  possibly  be  in  receiv- 
ing knowledge.  Executive  attention  must  be  more  de- 
veloping than  receptive  attention,  even  if  the  pupil 
acts  in  carrying  out  the  plans  of  the  teacher;  it  becomes 
still  more  productive  when  the  pupil  executes  his  own 
plan  or  carries  out  his  own  design. 

In  discipline  and  training  Herbart  was  much  more 
coercive  than  Froebel,  although  less  so  than  most  of  his 
predecessors  and  some  of  his  successors.  He  made  a 
much  larger  use  of  compulsion,  both  in  forcing  atten- 
tion to  study  and  in  controlling  the  conduct,  than  Froe- 
bel. Froebel  recognised  the  selfhood  of  the  child  as  the 
true  source  of  interest  and  the  surest  controlling  force. 
He  would  not  check  effort,  because  he  desired  above  all 
else  positivity  of  character.  He  would  not  stop  the  cur- 
rent of  real  individual  energy,  he  would  change  its  di- 
rection when  it  was  wrong  by  changing  the  pupiFs  cen- 
tre of  interest.  His  constant  purpose  was  to  secure 
reform  and  progress  through  the  child  so  that  it  might 
become  self-directing  and  self-progressive.  Herbart 
recognised  with  great  clearness  the  necessity  for  con- 
trol; Froebel  saw  the  harmony  between  spontaneity  and 
control,  "  the  perfect  law  of  liberty."  Yet  Herbart 
acknowledged  the  individuality  of  the  child.  He  wrote 
many  wise  things  about  it.  He  says,  for  instance,  "  The 
teacher  ought  to  make  it  a  point  of  honour  to  leave  the 


PESTALOZZI,  HERBART,  AND  FROEBEL.         45 

individuality  as  untouched  as  possible."  He  criticises 
severely  those  teachers  who  "  dominate  the  feelings  of 
the  pupil,  and,  holding  him  by  this  bond,  unceasingly 
disturb  the  youthful  character  to  feuch  an  extent  that 
it  can  never  know  itself."  But  even  his  disciples  ac- 
knowledge the  fact  that  there  is  at  least  an  apparent 
incongruity  between  his  conception  of  the  mind  of  the 
child  as  built  up  "  entirely  of  presentations  "  and  a  true 
recognition  of  individuality.  Herbart  himself  saw  this. 
It  is  clearly  impossible  to  give  individuality  its  full 
recognition,  when  the  conception  of  the  soul  is  reduced 
to  the  smallest  possible  degree.  The  more  the  soul  idea 
is  limited,  the  less  important  does  individuality  become 
and  the  more  potent  does  the  teacher  become  as  a  de- 
cider of  destiny.  Froebel's  conception  of  the  soul  as  an 
element  of  divinity  of  the  child  gave  him  a  reverence 
for  individuality  so  profound  that  he  demanded  of  the 
mother  and  teacher  two  things  for  the  child — freedom 
and  opportunity  for  creative  activity  in  applying  and 
extending  the  knowledge  gained  by  experience  and  in- 
struction. 

The  characteristics  of  the  systems  of  Herbart  and 
Froebel  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

Both  Herbart  and  Froebel  made  high  moral  charac- 
ter the  great  purpose  of  education.  Herbart  limited  the 
original  capacity  of  the  human  soul  to  one  power, 
"  that  of  entering  into  relations  of  the  external  world," 
or,  as  De  Garmo  defines  Herbart*s  idea,  "He  assigned 
to  the  soul  merely  the  capacity  of  self-preservation." 
Froebel  regarded  the  soul  as  a  germ  of  divinity,  that 
must  inevitably  develop  in  power,  and  that  should  de- 
velop by  its  own  creative  self-activity.    Herbart  studied 


p 


m 


i''  !|' 


m 


46 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


the  child  to  mould  it;  Froebel  studied  it  to  guide  it  in 
its  growth.  Herbart  studied  the  child  as  a  philosopher; 
Froebel  studied  it  as  a  sympathetic  philosopher.  Her- 
bart's  recognition  of  individuality  was  limited  by  his 
conception  of  the  inherent  powers  of  the  soul;  Froe- 
beFs  idea  of  the  child  soul  necessarily  led  him  to  rever- 
ence individuality  as  the  central  element  in  human  de- 
velopment and  as  the  thing  that  made  the  increase  of 
human  power  desirable.  Herbart  saw  the  need  of  con- 
trol much  more  clearly  than  the  need  of  freedom;  Froe- 
bel saw  the  harmony  between  freedom  and  control. 
Herbart  made  instruction  the  basis  of  virtue;  Froebel 
made  morality  depend  on  true  living  in  the  home  and 
in  the  school,  on  the  awakening  of  the  ideal  as  a  coun- 
terpoise to  the  sensual,  and  on  the  recognition  of  and 
reverence  for  the  life  principle  in  and  behind  Nature. 
Herbart  made  will  result  from  action;  Froebel  made  ac- 
tion result  from  will.  Self-activity  developed  the  will  ac- 
cording to  Froebel,  but  the  will  increased  in  power  as  the 
result  of  its  exercise  in  causing  creative  self-activity. 

Herbart's  contributions  to  pedagogy  are  a  matchless 
discussion  of  interest,  a  thorough  exposition  of  apper- 
ception, and  a  philosophic  foundation  for  co-ordination 
of  studies  so  that  they  may  produce  the  most  definite 
and  most  beneficial  results  on  character.  Froebel  re- 
vealed the  law  of  creative  self-activity  as  the  source  of 
growth,  including  in  it  the  most  intense  and  most  cer- 
tain interest  and  the  most  perfect  apperception,  and 
the  law  of  universal  unity,  in  which  unity  of  studies 
(correlation  or  concentration)  was  definitely  recognised, 
although  it  is  not  the  most  important  part  of  Froebel's 
comprehensive  idea  of  unity. 


\^      !! 


-J 


.V 


PESTALOZZI,  HERBART,  AND  PROEBEL.    47 

Herbart  aimed  to  produce  in  his  pupils  the  spirit  and 
the  power  of  co-operative  and  productive  activity.  In 
this  ideal  he  was  the  peer  of  all  other  educators  except 
Froebel,  and  the  superior  of  most  of  them.  Froebers 
ideal  was  co-operative,  productive,  and  creative  self-ac- 
tivity. 

Perhaps  Froebel's  most  distinctive  characteristics 
were  his  comprehensive  recognition  of  the  deepest  phi- 
losophy of  the  sages  in  regard  to  complete  human  de- 
velopment and  his  extraordinary  power  of  translating 
this  philosophy  into  a  practical  system  of  pedagogy, 
adapted  alike  to  the  symbolic  period  of  unconscious 
childhood  and  the  conscious  growth  of  maturer  years. 
Clear  insight  is  good,  high  achievement  is  far  better. 


.  M 


iili' 


f 


K: 


;1 


CHAPTER  III. 

froebel's  fundamental  law;  unity  or  inner  con- 
nection. 


Froebel  had  one  universal  law  to  which  he  related 
all  educational  processes,  by  which  he  tested  all  educa- 
tional methods,  and  on  which  he  founded  all  educational 
principles.  He  believed  absolutely  that  God  created 
all  things  in  a  universal,  interdependent,  interinfluen- 
cing,  ever-i)rogressive  harmony,  a  living  unity  of  which 
God  himself  was  and  is  and  shall  forever  remain  the 
centre  and  the  spiritual  essence,  the  divine  source  of  life 
and  light.  No  other  words  meant  so  much  to  him  as 
inner  connection.  The  fulness  of  their  meaning  it  was 
his  highest  aim  to  reveal  to  his  fellow-men,  because  to 
him  they  contained  not  only  the  true  basis  of  systems 
and  methods  in  education,  but  the  philosophical  prin- 
ciple on  which  the  social  organization  should  rest,  and 
in  conformity  with  which  the  progress  of  civilization 
must  be  made. 

As  he  understood  it,   unity  is  the  centre  of  all 

philosophy  and  the  co-ordinating  element  in  all  life 

processes  in  the  work  of  Nature  and  of  man.    To  gain 

an  insight  into  this  vital  and  universal  law  FroebePs  own 

words  should  be  carefully  studied.    These  words  may  at 

48 


PROKBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


49 


first  seem  mystical,  but  when  reread  and  applied  to  the 
unities  already  fixed  in  the  mind  by  experience  they 
will  gradually  be  understood,  and  will  prove  to  be  the 
language  of  a  prophet  soul  who  saw  beyond  his  time. 
The  mysticism  will  disappear  with  the  defining  and 
enlargement  of  our  own  apperceptive  centres  of  re- 
latedness. 

The  opening  paragraph  of  his  Education  of  Man 
reads  as  follows:  "  In  all  things  there  lives  and  reigns 
an  eternal  law.  To  him  whose  mind,  through  disposi- 
tion and  faith,  is  filled,  penetrated,  and  quickened  with 
the  necessity  that  this  can  not  possibly  be  otherwise, 
as  well  as  to  him  whose  clear,  calm  mental  vision  be- 
holds the  inner  in  the  outer  and  through  the  outer  and 
sees  the  outer  proceeding  with  logical  necessity  from 
the  essence  of  the  inner,  this  law  has  been  and  is 
enounced  with  equal  clearness  and  distinctness  in  Na- 
ture (the  external),  in  the  spirit  (the  internal),  and  in 
life,  which  unites  the  two.  This  all-controlling  law  is 
necessarily  based  on  an  all-pervading  energetic,  living, 
self-conscious,  and  hence  eternal  unity.  .  .  .  This  unity 
is  God." 

In  other  places  he  writes:  "Education  consists  in 
leading  man,  as  a  thinking,  intelligent  being,  growing 
into  self-consciousness,  to  a  pure  and  unsullied,  con- 
scious and  free  representation  of  the  inner  law  of  di- 
vine unity,  and  in  teaching  him  ways  and  means  there- 
to." 

"I  would  educate  human  beings  who  with  their 
feet  stand  rooted  in  God's  earth,  in  Nature,  whose  heads 
reach  even  into  heaven  and  there  behold  truth,  in  whose 
hearts  are  united  both  earth  and  heaven,  the  varied  life 


!  ■  ■■« 


hm 


■,M' 


HI 


60 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


of  earth  and  Nature,  and  the  glory  and  peace  of  heaven. 
God's  earth  and  God's  heaven." 

"  The  desire  for  unity  is  the  hasis  of  all  genuinely 
human  development  and  cultivation." 

"  The  school  endeavours  to  render  the  scholar  fully 
conscious  of  the  nature  and  inner  life  of  things  and  of 
himself,  to  teach  him  to  know  the  inner  relations 
of  things  to  one  another,  to  the  scholar,  and  to  the 
living  source  and  conscious  unity  of  all  things — to 
God." 

"  Never  forget  that  the  essential  business  of  the 
school  is  not  so  much  to  teach  and  to  communicate  a 
variety  and  a  multiplicity  of  things  as  it  is  to  give 
prominence  to  the  ever-living  unity  that  is  in  all 
things." 

"  Every  individual  being,  if  it  would  attain  its  des- 
tiny, in  necessary  and  indispensable  obedience  to  its  na- 
ture, must  manifest  and  reveal  itself  in  this  triune 
way,  in  and  as  unity,  in  and  as  individuality,  in  and  as 
manifoldness  in  ever-continuing  diversity." 

"  Nature  must  be  shown  to  the  pupil  as  an  organized 
and  organic  whole  in  all  directions." 

"  Are  not  man  and  Nature  the  creatures  of  the  one 
God?  Must  we  not  on  this  account  necessarily  find 
unity  and  harmony  and  obedience  to  the  same  law  in 
the  spirit  of  Nature  and  in  the  spirit  of  man,  in  external 
forms  and  forces,  and  in  internal  formation  and 
thought?" 

"  Mathematics  is  the  expression  of  the  inner  cause 
and  of  the  outer  limitations  of  space.    As  it  ori- 
In  unity,  it  is  in  itself  a  unity;  and,  as      ""■  .en 

diversity  in  direction,  shape,  and  extensic      it  lo   jwb 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


61 


m 


W8 


that  number,  form,  and  magnitude  mutually  imply  one 
another,  and  are  an  inseparable  three  in  unity." 

"  The  keystone  of  the  kindergarten  activity  is  the 
transformation  of  material,  and  therefore  the  percep- 
tion of  the  mutual  connectedness  of  the  various  solid 
forms,  their  derivation  from  one  another,  and  the  con- 
nection of  all  with  the  primary  unity  of  space." 

"  Living  soul  unity  sees  life  as  an  unbroken  whole 
in  all  its  operations  and  phenomena." 

"  The  search  for  details  is  the  more  interesting  the 
more  fully  a  relatively  greater  unit  has  been  previously 
grasped,  though  this  need  by  no  means  be  the  greatest 
possible  whole." 

"  The  firmament,  if  anything,  leads  us  to  recognise 
the  connection  of  all  that  is,  and  leads  us  up  to  unity — 
God.  No  one  of  the  heavenly  bodies  is  isolated,  every 
planet  has  its  centre  in  the  sun  of  its  system.  All  the 
solar  systems  are  in  relation  and  continual  interaction 
with  each  other.  That  is  the  condition  of  all  life. 
Everywhere  mutual  relation  of  parts.  As  above,  in 
great  things,  an  unbroken  connection  and  harmony 
rule,  so  also  here  below,  even  in  the  smallest  thing, 
everywhere  is  tlie  same  order  and  harmony,  because 
the  same  law  rules  everywhere,  the  one  law  of  God, 
which  expresses  itself  in  thousandfold  many-sidedness, 
hut  in  the  last  analysis  is  one,  for  God  himself  is  the 
law.  .  .  .  Everywhere  in  God's  creation,  in  the  infi- 
nite manifoldness  of  phenomena,  we  always  come  upon 
unity,  and  must  infer  it  where  we  do  not  perceive  it." 

"  To  reach  the  unconscious  harmony  of  Nature,  with 

consciousness  in  the  human  sphere,  is  the  goal  which 

God  has  set  for  man." 
5 


IV 


I  I 


:    !| 


tl 


TP" 


1  I 

1  ii 


:l: 


It 


i  I 


«l 


52 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


"  Every  productive  work,  every  work  consciously 
willed,  is  conditioned  upon  the  union  of  parts  accord- 
ing to  an  idea,  and  that  is  nothing  else  than  organiza- 
ing." 

**  The  time  has  come  when  man  must  recognise  his 
relations  to  Nature,  to  the  material  world,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  the  Spirit  of  God  which  rules  in  them." 

Dr.  Harris,  in  the  introduction  to  The  Education  of 
Man,  says:  "There  must  be  an  inner  connection  be- 
tween the  pupil's  mind  and  the  objects  which  he  stud- 
ies, and  this  shall  determine  what  to  study.  There 
must  be  an  inner  connection  in  those  objects  among 
themselves  which  determines  their  succession  and  the 
order  in  which  they  are  to  be  taken  up  in  the  course  of 
instruction.  Finally,  there  is  an  inner  connection  with- 
in the  soul  that  unites  the  faculties  of  feeling,  percep- 
tion, phantasy,  thought,  and  volition,  and  determines 
the  law  of  their  unfolding." 

Mr.  Bowen  faithfully  interprets  Froebel's  central 
purpose  when  he  says:  "  He  [Froebel]  pleads  for  the 
unification  of  thought  and  the  unification  of  life  by 
means  of  the  unification  of  the  materials  of  thought, 
and  the  unification  of  the  preparation  for  life." 

Mr.  Hailman  summarizes  Froebel's  fundamental  law 
thus:  "  In  his  educational  work  this  principle  of  life — 
unity — was  ever  uppermost  in  Froebe'^  mind.  With 
reference  to  the  individual  human  being,  this  unifica- 
tion of  life  means  to  Froebel  harmony  in  feeling,  think- 
ing, willing,  and  doing;  with  reference  to  humanity,  it 
means  subordination  of  self  to  the  common  welfare  and 
to  the  progressive  development  of  mankind;  with  ref- 
erence to  Nature^  it  means  a  thoughtful  subordination 


FROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


88 


to  her  laws  of  development;  with  reference  to  God,  it 
means  perfect  faith  as  Froebel  finds  it  realized  in  Chris- 
tianity." 

Miss  Blow,  in  her  work  on  Symbolic  Education,  says: 
"  The  application  of  the  idea  of  development  to  educa- 
tion has  been  in  large  measure  the  work  of  Pestalozzi 
and  Froebel.  To  the  former  we  owe  the  ideal  of  edu- 
cation as  the  harmonious  development  of  inherent  pow- 
ers; to  the  latter  must  be  accorded  the  honour  of  hav- 
ing first  clearly  perceived  the  manifold  implications  of 
this  ideal.  The  mind  of  Pestalozzi  was  a  battle  ground 
between  the  idea  of  development  and  the  atomism  he 
had  inherited  from  Rousseau.  Over  the  mind  of  Froe- 
bel the  new  ideal  held  the  sole  and  supreme  sway,  and  so 
clear  to  him  was  its  paramount  significance  that  he 
could  boldly  affirm  he  would  rather  win  from  a  tiny 
sand  grain  the  history  of  its  development  than  learn 
from  God  himself  the  structure  of  the  universe." 

These  are  the  opinions  of  FroebeFs  best  English- 
speaking  interpreters,  and  they  give  to  him  the  high 
honour  of  revealing  to  the  world  in  applied  form  the 
law  of  unity,  interrelationship,  inner  connection,  "  uni- 
fication of  life,"  development,  or  evolution.  This  law 
as  Froebel  understood  it  is  too  comprehensive  in  its 
varied  meanings  and  applications  to  be  fitly  named  by 
one  word  or  phrase,  or  even  by  a  series  of  words  and 
phrases.  It  is  great  enough  to  form  a  life  study,  and  it 
is  so  truly  the  basis  of  the  evolutionary  unification  of 
life  that  as  each  year  of  progressive  study  widens  the 
range  of  intellectual  vision  it  reveals  itself  in  extended 
applications  and  more  harmonious  co-ordinations.  In 
a  single  chapter  it  is  possible  to  give  only  a  brief  ez« 


#l'i 


t      i  ' 


54 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


position  of  those  applications  of  the  law  that  should  lead 
teachers  to  a  broader  conception  of  the  meaning  of  edu- 
cation and  aid  them  in  gaining  a  fuller  comprehension 
of  the  principles  that  underlie  the  art  of  teaching. 

Speaking  generally,  the  law  is  based  on  the  idea  that 
there  is  a  central,  co-ordinating,  life-producing,  life-giv- 
ing, creative  power,  which  is  not  only  the  source  of  all 
life  and  power,  but  is  itself  the  life  and  power  and  evo- 
lutionary element  in  all  creation;  and  that  as  this  cen- 
tral power  is  itself  perfect,  the  universal  tendency  of 
all  life  is  a  progressive  development  toward  the  divine 
unity  in  the  evolution  of  ultimate  perfection.  "  It  is 
the  destiny  and  life  work  of  all  things  to  unfold  their 
essence,  hence  their  divine  being." 

Confining  the  application  of  the  law  of  unity  to  in- 
dividual man,  and  especially  to  his  educational  growth, 
Froebel  says:  "  It  is  the  special  destiny  and  life  work  of 
man,  as  an  intelligent  and  rational  being,  to  become 
fully,  vividly,  and  clearly  conscious  of  his  essence,  of 
the  divine  effluence  in  him,  and  therefore  of  God;  to 
become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly  conscious  of  his  des- 
tiny and  life  work;  and  to  accomplish  this,  to  render  it 
(his  essence)  active,  to  reveal  it  in  his  own  life  with  self- 
determination  and  freedom."  As  every  human  being 
has  within  himself  the  divine,  the  great  work  of  educa- 
tion is  to  keep  this  divine  essence  in  conscious  unity 
with  the  divinity,  so  that  by  free  self-activity  it  may 
achieve  self-revelation,  and,  having  found  its  own  in- 
dividuality, may  defi'iie  it  in  creative  work  for  the  race, 
of  which  greater  "'  ganic  unity  it  constitutes  a  complete, 
a  free,  but  a  responsible  part. 

Froebel  taught  that,  if  man  at  every  stage  of  his  evo' 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


55 


luiion  receives  the  training  and  culture  suitable  for  his 
development  at  that  time  and  adapted  to  the  interested 
employment  of  his  own  powers,  his  spiritual  relation- 
ship to  the  universal  unity  of  humanity  and  God  will 
unfold  itself  naturally  through  the  symbolism  of  the 
material  unities  that  are  gradually  revealed  to  him.  He 
saw  very  clearly  the  inner  connection  or  life  unity  ex- 
isting between  childhood,  boyhood,  youth,  and  man- 
hood, and,  applying  the  universal  law,  that  a  perfect 
organism  can  only  be  produced  by  the  co-ordination 
of  individually  perfect  parts  or  elements,  he  decided  that 
the  degree  of  perfection  attained  by  each  succeeding 
stage  in  the  evolution  of  manhood  must  depend  on  the 
completeness  of  the  appropriate  development  of  the  pre- 
ceding stage  or  stages.  The  only  possible  preparation 
for  a  perfect  development  of  boyhood  is  the  complete 
unfolding  of  the  powers  of  childhood;  the  character- 
istic evolution  of  childhood  and  boyhood  prepares  tlie 
way  for  the  thorough  training  of  youth;  and  the  possi- 
bility of  realizing  a  true  manhood  depends  on  the  ful- 
ness of  the  fitting  preparation  made  during  the  three 
previous  stages  of  development. 

If  during  the  period  of  childhood  the  child  is  de- 
nied any  of  the  conditions  or  opportunities  of  perfect 
child  unfolding,  or  if  it  is  forced  or  permitted  to  do  or 
learn  any  of  the  work  properly  belonging  to  a  later 
stage,  the  evil  done  can  not  be  undone  in  the  future  by 
any  process  of  training,  however  wise  it  may  be.  The 
dwarfing  of  omission  and  the  blighting  of  wrong  com- 
mission are  permanent.  "  The  child,  the  boy,  man,  in- 
deed, should  know  no  other  endeavour  but  to  be  at  every 
etage  of  development  wholly  what  this  stage  calls  for.'' 


ff  ^''Ti 


56 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


This  is  the  doctrine  of  Froebel.  In  its  extension  this 
doctrine  has  led  to  the  important  modern  investigations 
regarding  nascent  periods  or  life  epochs  of  special  apti- 
tude for  the  study  of  certain  subjects. 

The  violation  of  this  doctrine  has  led  to  many  of 
the  worst  errors  in  connection  with  education.  The 
giving  of  abstract  lessons  in  arithmetic  and  the  attempts 
to  develop  mechanical  expertness  in  arithmetical  opera- 
tions before  space  relationships  have  been  incidentally 
defined  in  children's  minds  by  using  material  things — 
not  for  the  direct  purpose  of  teaching  arithmetic  at  all, 
but  in  carrying  out  some  plan  of  building  or  other  inter- 
esting process  of  self-activity — have  made  arithmetical 
dwarfs  out  of  thousands  who  should  have  been  mathe- 
matical giants.  Arithmetical  relationships  and  pro- 
cesses unfold  themselves  as  naturally  as  the  power  of 
speech,  in  the  minds  of  children  who  are  led  by  their 
home  and  school  occupations  to  form  concepts  of  real 
mathematical  relationships  before  they  are  asked  to  deal 
with  mere  mathematical  symbols. 

Froebel  was  far  in  advance  even  of  those  who  im- 
agine that  they  are  fulfilling  the  requirements  of  peda- 
gogical laws  by  using  objects  to  represent  number,  in 
order  to  teach  numerical  conceptions,  combinations,  and 
operations.  The  lesson  to  be  learned  is  not  the  direct 
object  in  Froebel's  introductory  work.  The  things  used 
by  the  child  are  always  more  than  mere  number  em- 
blems. To  use  objects  only  as  counters  or  as  separate 
units  follows  the  law  of  atomism  or  unrelated  indi- 
vidualism, but  it  directly  violates  Froebel's  law  of  unity. 
Even  when  the  separate  nits  are  collected  to  represent 
number  or  combinations  of  numbers  they  are  not  as- 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


67 


sociated  in  harmony  with  any  law  of  "  inner  connection." 
They  form  an  aggregation,  not  a  true  interrelated  unity. 
There  is  no  bond  of  life,  no  underlying  interpenetrat- 
ing idea  around  which  they  are  organized.  Objective 
representation  of  number  is  undoubtedly  better  than  its 
abstract  presentation  to  the  child  mind,  but  Froebel 
gave  the  child  organized  material  which  it  can  use  in 
representing  or  expressing  its  own  design  or  thought, 
and  by  the  use  of  which  it  incidentally  forms  exact 
mathematical  conceptions,  which  are  as  clear  to  its  mind 
as  any  other  conceptions  received  through  its  interest- 
ing plays  or  occupations.  In  this  way  arithmetic  be- 
comes attractive  at  the  proper  time,  and  the  solution  of 
problems  is  a  source  of  stimulating  interest. 

The  teaching  of  the  formal  rules  of  grammar  too 
early  often  destroys  the  joy  and  the  development  that 
should  come  to  the  child  through  self-expression  by 
language;  and  the  attempt  to  teach  botany,  entomology, 
or  zoology  to  young  children  robs  them  of  the  many 
advantages  they  should  derive  from  their  natural  love 
of  flowers,  insects,  and  animals.  It  is  a  gross  error  to 
try  to  interest  children  in  the  scientific  analysis  and 
classification  of  flowers,  insects,  and  animals,  while  they 
should  simply  be  gaining  through  love  of  these  things  a 
clear  recognition  of  the  spirit  of  life  in  and  behind  them, 
and  a  consciousness  of  the  ascending  evolution  of  life  in 
them.  Their  loving  interest  in  these  playfellows  will 
form  a  basis  for  thorough  and  practical  study  of  botany, 
entomology,  and  zoology  in  due  time.  The  love  of  life 
developed  in  the  child  forms  the  only  true  basis  for  the 
scientific  study  of  life  by  the  boy  or  the  youth.  If  a 
young  man  or  woman  begins  the  study  of  botany  with- 


m^ 


i(  , 


WT 


68 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


out  having  had  the  love  and  nurture  of  flower  life  de- 
veloped in  childhood  by  living  with  the  flowers  and,  if 
possible,  by  planting  their  seeds  and  caring  for  them,  the 
study  will  be  formal  and  uninteresting.  It  will  be  car- 
ried on  without  the  apperceiving  centre  of  knowledge 
and  the  interest  stimulus  of  love. 

Froebel's  principle  of  stage  evolution  holds  as  truly 
in  the  department  of  moral  training  as  in  intellectual 
culture.  No  greater  wrong  can  be  inflicted  upon  a  child 
than  to  try  to  make  it  exhibit  the  characteristics  of  the 
religious  life  of  maturity,  either  in  profession  or  prac- 
tice. The  only  certain  product  of  such  training  is  a 
hypocrite — the  meanest  thing  that  false  training  can 
make  out  of  a  being  formed  in  God's  image.  There 
are  two  ways  by  which  it  may  be  made  impossible  for  a 
man  ever  to  become  as  true  a  type  of  Christian  character 
as  under  proper  conditions  he  might  have  been.  The 
one  is  by  starving  his  sympathies,  his  poetic  fancy,  and 
his  artistic  instincts  while  a  child  and  leaving  him 
without  heart  consciousness  of  love,  formed  in  the  lov- 
ing home,  and  head  consciousness  of  life,  gained  from 
the  life  in  and  behind  Nature.  The  other  is  by  forcing 
on  him  the  religious  principles  and  dogmas  of  a  ma- 
tured theology,  or  requiring  from  him  the  Christian 
service  of  adults. 

But,  although  Froebel  urges  so  strongly  the  abso- 
lute necessity  for  adequate  and  appropriate  develop- 
ment in  each  stage  of  growth  from  infancy  to  manhood, 
he  protests  very  forcibly  against  making  "  sharp  limits 
and  definite  subdivisions  within  the  continuous  series 
of  the  years  of  development."  Plan's  complete  life 
imity  must  have  continuity  as  well  as  unity.    Indeed 


FROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


69 


.ill 


continuity  is  an  essential  element  in  Froebel's  concep- 
tion  of  every  progressive  unity.  "  That  which  follows," 
he  says,  "  is  always  conditioned  upon  that  which  goes 
before."  The  present,  in  time  or  action,  is  always  the 
link  between  the  past  and  the  future.  Continuity  is  an 
essential  in  every  progressive  process.  Man's  develop- 
ment is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  series  of  distinct  steps, 
but  as  a  closely  interrelated  series  of  evolutionary  de- 
grees proceeding  from  infancy,  and  each  a  necessary 
preparation  for  the  perfection  of  the  succeeding  degree. 
Each  intermediate  degree  depends  on  its  predecessor  and 
prepares  for  its  successor,  and  thus  realizes  FroebeFs 
ideal  of  unity  as  connectedness. 

Froebel  broadly  outlines  the  process  of  development 
ji  man  in  the  sentence,  "  To  make  the  internal  external, 
and  the  external  internal,  to  find  unity  for  both,  this  is 
the  general  external  form  in  which  man's  destiny  is  ex- 
pressed." To  childhood  and  the  home  he  assigns  the 
work  of  making  the  internal  external.  This  includes 
the  kindergarten  period,  as  he  hoped  to  have  the  kin- 
dergarten spirit  in  the  homes,  and  aimed  to  make  the 
kindergartens  themselves  in  reality  co-operative  homes 
for  children — homes  in  which  there  should  be  the  unity 
of  social  conditions  among  the  children  and  the  unity 
of  culture,  wisdom,  and  motherliness  in  the  kinder- 
gartners.  The  second  and  third  periods,  boyhood  and 
youth,  during  which  the  external  is  to  be  made  inter- 
nal and  unity  discovered  and  defined  between  the  in- 
ternal and  the  external,  are  to  be  spent  in  school  (in- 
cluding college).  The  first  period  he  calls  the  period  of 
lifey  the  second  the  period  of  learning,  the  third  the  pe- 
riod of  unification.    During  the  first  period  the  child 


i 

1         , 

! 
1 

1       il 

i 

1 

TT^ 


w 


60 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


makes  the  acquaintance  of  Nature^  defines  its  own  pow< 
ers,  and  strengthens  its  selfhood  by  putting  its  inner 
life  out  in  its  plays  and  by  gaining  constructive  con- 
trol over  its  material  environment  in  its  voluntary  and 
directed  occupations.  During  the  second  period  it 
should  receive  a  well-chosen  and  well-organized  course 
of  instruction;  and  during  the  third  it  should  be  led  to 
see  itself  in  its  relationships  to  the  material  world,  to 
society,  and  to  God.  The  germ  feelings  and  thought 
or  apperceptive  centres  for  the  complete  development 
of  the  third  period  should  be  evolved  in  the  first  period 
and  the  body  of  knowledge  organized  so  as  to  aid  in  the 
culture  of  mind,  and  the  formation  of  character  should 
be  communicated  during  the  second  period.  Then,  in 
the  third  period  the  unification  of  the  internal  with  the 
external  is  consciously  revealed,  reason  is  developed,  de- 
sire transformed  into  will,  and  "  will  into  firmness  of 
will,"  or  stability  of  uptending  character. 

These  three  stages  of  growth  thus  outlined  by  Froe- 
bel  in  very  general  terms  correspond  closely,  first,  to  the 
period  spent  at  home  before  going  to  school,  when  spon- 
taneity or  free  life  activity  predominates  in  the  child's 
development;  second,  to  school  life,  when  the  boy  is 
instructed;  and,  third,  to  college  life,  during  which  the 
youth  should  be  made  conscious  of  his  own  individual 
relationships  and  responsibility,  and  trained  to  reason 
properly,  that  he  may  have  a  reliable  inner  guide  to  di- 
rect his  life  work. 

Froebel  would  make  as  radical  changes  in  the  third 
stage  in  the  evolution  of  perfect  manhood  as  he  did  in 
the  first.  He  would  make  a  college  much  more  than  8 
higher  school  for  giving  instruction  in  special  depart 


PROBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


61 


ments  of  learning.  The  college  should  train  manhood. 
The  chief  aim  of  college  training  should  be  construc- 
tive character  work,  rather  than  the  giving  of  extended 
intellectual  culture  alone.  The  best  intellectual  cul- 
ture would  be  secured  by  giving  character  construction 
the  first,  and  mind  storing  the  second  place.  Young 
men  should  not  be  mere  atoms  in  a  great  college  aggre- 
gation, they  should  be  responsible,  self-directing  indi- 
viduals in  a  great  unity  whose  "  inner  connection " 
should  be  the  fuller  comprehension  of  duty  based  on  re- 
lationship to  their  fellow-men  and  God.  The  gradual 
revelation  of  universal  interdependence  in  the  con- 
sciousness is  a  mightier  stimulus  to  self-activity  or  in- 
dividual effort  (the  only  true  productive  effort)  for 
culture  than  the  external  incentives  of  competitive 
examination,  class  standing,  or  scholarships.  These,  ac- 
cording to  Froebcl's  philosophy,  are  not  only  weak,  as 
all  purely  external  incentives  are,  but  destructive  of  true 
character,  as  they  develop  the  immoral  competitive  spirit 
instead  of  the  spirit  of  community.  Whatever  weakens 
the  bond  of  human  unity  is  evil;  whatever  strengthens 
it  is  divine  in  quality  and  tendency.  Froebel  would 
therefore  give  to  youth  in  the  third  stage  of  human 
evolution  much  more  freedom  of  action  than  is  now 
given  in  most  colleges  and  universities,  as  the  only  basis 
for  the  natural  development  of  social  relationship  and 
responsibility.  He  understood  the  harmony  between 
the  control  of  parent,  kindergartner,  teacher,  or  pro- 
fessor and  the  spontaneity  of  the  child,  boy,  or  youth 
90  fully  that  he  had  a  sacred  reverence  for  individual 
freedom.  This  harmony  between  control  and  spon- 
taneity was  part  of  his  law  of  unity,  as  was  his  recogni- 


. 


Tfrr 


62 


FROEBELS  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tion  of  the  harmony  between  all  apparent  opposite^ 
He  demanded  such  reverence  for  individual  selfhood 
as  would  give  more  freedom  to  the  pupil  in  every  stage 
of  his  development,  and  in  the  third  stage  he  would  en- 
large freedom  into  conscious  liberty  as  the  source  of 
conscious  responsibility.  The  old  mandatory  dominat- 
ing spirit  of  college  and  university  control  must  change. 
It  may  be  changed  safely,  when  the  evolution  of  child- 
hood and  boyhood  is  in  harmony  with  the  true  princi- 
ples of  child  and  boy  development. 

Speaking  of  his  own  training  at  Jena,  during  his 
third  stage  of  development,  he  said:  "My  stay  at  Jena 
had  taught  me  much,  but  by  no  means  so  much  as  it 
ought  to  have  taught  me,  but  yet  /  had  won  for  myself 
a  standpoint  both  subjective  and  objective.  I  could 
already  perceive  unity  in  diversity,  the  correlation  of 
forces,  the  interconnection  of  all  living  things,  life  in 
matter,  and  the  principles  of  physics  and  biology."  Ex- 
amination  could  test  only  the  least  important  of  these 
acquirements. 

Writing  of  his  own  conscious  mental  development, 
he  said:  "  The  most  pregnant  thought  which  arose  in 
me  at  this  period  (aged  twenty-five)  was  this:  All  is  unity, 
all  rests  in  unity,  all  springs  from  unity,  strives  for  and 
leads  up  to  unity,  and  returns  to  unity  at  last.  This 
striving  in  unity  and  after  unity  is  the  cause  of  the  sev- 
eral aspects  of  human  life."  Three  years  later  he  wrote, 
"  Mankind  as  a  whole,  as  one  great  unity,  has  now  be- 
come my  quickening  thought "  ;  and  again,  two  years 
afterward,  he  wrote  of  the  lectures  of  Prof.  Weiss, 
of  Berlin,  on  natural  history,  "  The  lectures  for  which 
I  had  so  longed  really  came  up  to  the  oeeds  of  my 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


68 


mind  and  soul  and  a'vakened  in  me,  more  fervent 
than  ever,  the  certainty  of  the  demonstrable  inner  con- 
nection of  the  whole  cosmical  development  of  the  uni- 


my 


verse. 

The  conception  of  unity  grew  more  clear  to  him, 
till  it  became  the  guiding  element  in  his  life  work.  He 
continued  without  ceasing  to  "  systematize,  symbolize, 
idealize,  realize,  and  recognise  identities  and  analogies 
among  all  facts  and  phenomena,  all  problems,  ex- 
pressions, and  formulas  which  deeply  interested  him; 
and  in  this  way  life,  with  its  varied  phenomena  and  ac- 
tivities, became  to  him  more  and  more  free  from  con- 
tradictions, more  harmonious,  simple,  and  clear,  and 
more  recognisable  as  a  part  of  the  life  universal." 

Filled  with  this  great  ideal,  the  natural  step  next  in 
order  was  to  plan  for  making  his  conception  of  the  great 
unity  clear  to  his  fellow-men.  While  walking  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  where  the  Main  pours  in  its  waters, 
and  surrounded  by  "  Nature  at  her  loveliest  and  fresh- 
est," the  thought  came  to  him,  "  There  must  exist  some- 
where some  beautifully  simple  and  certain  way  of  free- 
ing human  life  from  contradiction,  some  means  of  re- 
storing to  man  himself  at  peace  interimlly.''  To  seek 
out  this  way  became  the  vocation  of  his  life. 

Seeing  the  advantages  of  a  living  unity  so  clearly, 
it  is  not  strange  that  he  should  regard  unification  of 
knowledge,  and  conscious  interrelationship  as  the  su- 
preme work  of  the  training  of  a  young  man  or  woman. 
For  this  fullest  preparation  for  the  conception  of  duty 
and  the  independent  power  to  execute  it,  he  planned  the 
course  of  education  in  the  three  stages  of  human  evolu- 
tion.   He  wrought  out  in  detail  only  the  first,  but  the 


i 


iH 


I' I 


'  Ml' 


'',  a' ! 


64 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


foundation  law  throughout  he  believed  to  be  unity,  and 
the  fundamental   process  self-activity. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  extensive  attention  now 
paid  to  the  investigation  of  the  theory  of  "  culture 
epochs  "  will  lead  to  a  much  fuller  understanding  of 
Froebel's  law  of  evolution  and  a  more  definite  classifi- 
cation of  the  stages  or  degrees  or  life  epochs  in  human 
development;  but  whatever  discoveries  may  be  made  in 
this  department  of  pedagogy,  Froebel  must  always  be 
regarded  as  the  first  to  make  the  theory  of  "  culture 
epochs"  a  part  of  pedagogical  practice.  He  regarded 
it  as  of  such  supreme  importance  that  he  wrote:  "  If 
the  moment  of  the  natural  budding  of  the  new  subject 
of  instruction  has  been  missed,  every  later  attempt  arbi- 
trarily to  introduce  the  subject  lacks  interest.  .  .  .  The 
distinctive  character  of  a  natural  and  rational  life-stir- 
ring and  developing  system  of  instruction  lies  in  the 
finding  and  fixing  of  this  point.  For  when  it  is  truly 
found,  the  subject  of  instruction  grows  independently 
in  accordance  with  its  own  living  law,  and  truly  teaches 
the  teacher  himself.  Therefore,  the  whole  attention 
of  the  teacher  must  be  directed  to  these  budding  points 
of  new  branches  of  instruction."  The  most  advanced 
modern  investigation  has  not  got  beyond  Froebel  in 
the  theory  of  nascent  periods  or  culture  epochs. 

Froebel  applied  the  law  of  unity  to  the  development 
of  man's  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  powers 
in  harmony.  This  view  of  individual  unity  is  now  very 
generally  accepted  in  theory,  although  still  almost  uni- 
versally violated  in  practice.  The  usual  practice  is 
to  make  definite  and  systematic  effort  to  develop  the 
intellectual  powers^  or  at  least  store  the  minds  of  pu- 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


C5 


pils,  but  few  schools  make  equally  definite  and  sya- 
lematic  efforts  to  train  their  bodies  and  develop  tlieir 
spiritual  powers.  Froebel  taught  that  bodily  activity 
and  the  condition  of  the  vital  organs  has  a  direct  intlu- 
ence  on  the  development  of  the  brain  and  nervous  sys- 
tem, and  on  the  co-ordination  of  the  brain,  the  nerv- 
ous system,  and  the  body  itself.  Modern  neurology  sus- 
tains his  theory.  He  taught  that  the  essential  elements 
necessary  to  form  a  strong  character  are  a  vigorous 
active  body;  a  well-developed,  well-nourished,  co-ordi- 
nated brain  as  the  organ  of  a  balanced  mind;  ami  a 
spiritual  nature  sympathetically  responsive  to  truth, 
purity,  and  nobility  in  man,  to  beauty,  life,  and  evolu- 
tion in  Nature  and  to  the  love  and  inspiration  of  God. 
He  believed  that  these  elements  of  truti  manhood  should 
be  trained  as  a  unity;  that  God  had  created  thcin  in 
harmony;  and  that  those  who  train  one  department 
only  of  man's  nature  at  the  expense  of  the  other  two 
are  producing  abnormal  beings,  out  of  harmony  with 
God's  plan.  This  is  so  absolutely  true  that  the  tend- 
ency of  Nature  is  to  refuse  to  reproduce  such  abnormal 
men  and  women.  Herbert  Spencer  says:  "  A  deficiency 
of  reproductive  power  in  women  results  from  overtaxing 
their  brains."  Mr.  Spencer  shows  narrowness  in  at- 
tributing loss  of  reproductive  power  as  the  result  of 
overtaxing  the  brain  to  women  only.  Mr.  Galton  found 
a  similar  result  among  men  of  genius.  Tt  is  quite  as  true 
in  the  case  of  men  as  of  women.  This  result,  however, 
does  not  necessarily  follow  from  the  complete  develop- 
ment of  the  brain  or  its  vigorous  and  sustained  ac- 
tion, but  from  the  culture  and  exercise  of  the  brain  at 
the  expense  of  the  body.    Mr.  Spencer  evidently  believes 


I      ji'i 


If 


'jvn^ 


mv 


I 


66 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


j,i- 


that  the  evil  springs  from  anomalous  development,  be- 
cause he  holds  that  "  physical  labour  makes  women  less 
fertile/'  although  he  thinks  more  evidence  is  needed  to 
prove  this  conclusively.  It  is  reasonable  to  conclude 
that  the  destructive  or  restrictive  elTects  of  physical 
overexertion  on  fertility,  or  on  any  other  bodily  func- 
tion, are  not  so  great  or  so  immediately  recognisable  as 
the  effects  of  overstimulation  and  overexertion  of  the 
brain.  Bodily  exertion  develops  the  brain  to  a  consid- 
erable extent,  and  so  tends  to  preserve  the  necessary  har- 
mony of  development,  but  overactivity  of  the  brain  pre- 
vents the  proper  development  of  the  body  and  directly 
interferes  with  harmonious  development  or  the  perfect 
unity  that  Froebel  desired  to  restore  and  perpetuate 
as  a  basis  for  complete  happiness  and  the  conscious  evo- 
lution of  the  race  toward  the  divine.  The  prolonged 
intensification  of  great  Intellectual  effort  and  the  neg- 
lect of  physical  training  must  lead  to  the  weakening 
of  the  vital  organisifi,  the  disorganization  of  the  nerv- 
ous system,  the  deterioration  of  physical  energy,  and 
therefore  to  a  "  deficiency  of  reproductive  power."  The 
law  of  unity  is  so  absolute  and  inexorable  that  its  vio- 
lation is  always  followed  by  appropriate  penalty. 

The  destruction  of  the  natural  harmony  between 
the  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  powers  by  over- 
straining or  overexerting  any  department  of  human 
power  at  the  expense  of  the  ot'iors  is  inevitably  evil  in 
its  effects.  There  are  men  and  women  who  have  pos- 
sessed, and  do  now  possess,  extraordinary  intellectual 
power,  and  whose  physical  culture  has  been  entirely 
neglected.  Some  notable  instances  have  occurred  in 
which  the  brain  of  a  genius  has  been  lodged  in  a  body 


PIlOEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


VI 


feeble  from  birth.  These  illustrations  do  not  disprove 
the  correctness  of  the  law  of  unity  of  development. 
On  the  contrary,  they  confirm  it  in  a  most  emphatic 
manner.  In  every  such  case  the  great  intellectual  work 
is  performed  by  the  aid  of  the  energy  stored  up  by 
generations  of  ancestors,  and  at  the  expense  of  the  suc- 
ceeding generation.  The  second,  if  not  the  first  genera- 
tion, in  such  cases  is  childless,  or  the  number  of  chil- 
dren is  small,  and  those  who  are  born  rarely  possess 
much  strength  either  of  body  or  mind.  Every  teacher 
who  stimulates  the  intellectual  powers  of  her  pupils 
without  definitely  and  systematically  training  the  phys- 
ical powers  and  the  spiritual  powers  at  the  same  time  is 
fighting  against  God. 

The  educational  aims  and  methods  of  the  past,  by 
directing  attention  almost  exclusively  to  the  intellect 
and  by  training  the  sensor  at  the  expense  of  the  motor 
gystem,  have  done  violence  to  the  law  of  unity  between 
the  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  powers.  The 
evil  elTects  would  have  been  much  more  clearly  seen  but 
for  the  fact  that  the  children  have  had  opportunities  for 
natural  development  outside  of  school.  They  are  more 
easily  discoverable  in  cities,  where  the  pupils  have  fewer 
opportunities  for  free  activity  and  for  direct  contact 
with  the  life  and  beauty  of  Nature  than  are  enjoyed  by 
( hildren  who  are  fortunate  enough  to  live  in  the  coun- 
try. 

Froebel  understood  the  unity  between  feeling,  know- 
ing, and  willing.  In  the  evolution  of  the  individual 
man  he  recognised  not  only  the  continuity  between  the 
stages  of  his  development  and  the  unity  between  his 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  }>owers,  but,  dealing 


r 


^ 


I 


1 

**i 

il 

If 

i 

■^1^ 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


with  the  intellectual  powers  only,  he  considered  them 
^r  be  a  unity  in  their  action,  and  by  advocating  this 
view  he  helped  to  do  away  with  the  old  theory  that  the 
intellectual  powers  consisted  of  a  number  of  inde- 
pendent faculties,  each  of  which  required  a  distinct  time 
and  special  process  for  its  development. 

But  one  of  his  most  important  discoveries  in  regard 
to  the  unities  of  the  individual  man  was  that  there 
should  be  harmony  bet,veen  man's  receptive,  reflective, 
and  executive  powers.  He  improved  upon  the  motto 
of  Comenius, "  Children  learn  to  do  by  doing."  To  Froe- 
bel  growth  was  always  greater  than  learning.  He  did  not 
undervalue  learning,  but  he  valued  it  as  an  aid  to 
growth,  so  as  he  interpreted  ;he  motto  of  Comenius 
it  gained  increased  significance  rnd  became,  "  Children 
grow  by  doing."  His  process  of  self-activity  is  based  on 
the  principle  that  development  comes  not  alone  from 
doing,  but  from  doing  under  the  direct  and  original 
guidance  of  the  mind  of  the  doer.  The  act  is  the  exe- 
cution of  the  decision  of  the  mind,  based  on  the  knowl- 
edge already  stored  in  it.  True  self-activity  does  ac- 
quire knowledge  more  rapidly  than  any  other  process, 
but  it  d  es  more  than  acquire  knowledge,  it  apperceives 
it  and  organizes  it  with  the  kindred  knowledge  already 
in  the  mind.  The  only  v  ay  that  the  knowledge  in  the 
mind  can  certainly  be  roused  into  aggressive  expectancy 
for  the  reception  of  new  knowledge  is  by  self-activity, 
which  requires  the  inceptive  process  of  learning  to  take 
place  in  the  mind.  But  Froebel  accomplished  more 
than  learning  by  self-activity.  He  developed  the  self- 
hood and  made  it  not  only  receptive  and  reflect  /e,  but 
executive.    He  taught  that  to  destroy  the  unity  that 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


69 


naturally  cista  between  tliis  trinity  of  power  preventa 
the  full  development  of  eaeli  individual  power,  and 
weakens  eharaeter  by  making  it  negative  instead  of  posi- 
tive. Keeeptivity  and  refleetion  are  never  so  aetive  or  so 
(li;linite  in  tlie  mere  aequisition  of  an  idea  as  in  the  ex- 
pression or  representation  or  execution  of  the  idea.  The 
(K'veh)pn»ent  of  the  first  two  steps  in  the  sequence  is  of 
little  use  to  the  individual  or  to  humanity  unless  the 
third  is  developed  as  well. 

The  tendencv  of  little  children,  even  after  centuries 
of  weakening  of  executive  or  motor  force  by  tlie  almost 
exclusive  training  of  the  sensory  system,  is  to  carry  out 
their  decisions  at  once.  All  day  long  with  sand  or 
slicks  or  stones  or  improvised  spades  or  other  tools,  if  they 
are  free  and  have  t  he  good  fortune  to  be  allowed  to  "  play 
in  the  dirt,"  tliey  experiment  with  the  properties  of  mate- 
rial things,  and  immediately  execute  their  decisions  and 
designs  in  l)uilding,  tunnelling,  and  all  kinds  of  en- 
gineering o|)erations.  Some  anxious  parents  are  dis- 
couraged l)ecause  at  this  period  their  children  change  so 
([uickly  from  one  plan  to  another,  showing  an  apparent 
lack  of  persistence  in  work.  IVrsistdice  is  not  the  qual- 
ity the  child  is  devcloj»ing.  Its  attention  flits  from  plan 
to  |»l:in,  but  it  at  least  attem])ts  to  carry  out  every  plan  it 
I'oiins.  The  same  heap  (jf  sand  may  form  the  material 
for  a  score  of  plans  in  a  day,  but  the  child  makes  its  own 
plans  and  carries  them  out  in  its  own  imperfect  way. 
It  is  a  pity  that  the  unity  between  decision  and  action 
is  ever  broken.  l''roel)el  would  strengtlien  the  bond 
until  it  becomes  conscious  and  till  men  cease  to  form 
decisions,  merely  to  fail  to  execute  them  from  lack  of 
will  and  executive  habit.     To  ,  reserve  and  strengthen 


■jrrr 


mm 


] 


i>r 


70 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


this  unity  by  developing  the  missing  link,  executive 
habit,  should  be  one  of  the  primary  aims  of  all  teach- 
ers. 

Froebel  taught  that  unity  was  the  only  possible  basis 
for  the  development  of  the  race  as  well  as  of  the  individ- 
ual. "  Only  humanity  as  a  whole,  as  a  unit,  can  fully  at- 
tain the  highest  and  ultimate  purpose  of  human  striving, 
the  representation  of  pure  humanity."  He  believed, 
with  many  educators  and  philosophers  who  had  pre- 
ceded him,  that  the  race  had  culture  epochs  correspond- 
ing to  those  he  defined  in  the  evolution  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  the  true  culture  of  the  race  required 
similar  continuity  of  development  to  that  of  the  indi- 
vidual. But  Froebel  taught  that  the  evolution  of  the 
race  depended  on  a  unity  between  the  individual  and 
the  race  much  more  intimate  and  more  vital  than  the 
mere  correspondence  of  their  culture  epochs.  He  be- 
lieved that  each  individual  should  be  the  ideal  of  the 
organized  race;  or,  in  other  words,  that  individual  man 
can  never  be  a  perfect  individual  until  he  has  in  his 
mind  a  clear  conception  of  the  perfect  type  of  the  total- 
ity of  the  race  in  complete  unity;  and  that  race  perfec- 
tion will  only  be  possible  when  the  individuals  compos- 
ing it  shall  all  be  race-inclusive  unit  wholes.  This  origi- 
nal, doubly  interrelated  conception  of  race  community, 
based  on  the  interstimulating  unity  of  the  individuals 
composing  it,  and  of  the  unity  of  the  individual  as  rep- 
resenting in  himself  the  fullest  evolution  of  the  race,  is 
the  highest  ideal  of  interrelationship  between  m.an  and 
mankind  ever  conceived.  It  is  still  so  advanced  a 
thought  that  the  English  language  contains  no  word  or 
phrase  that  adequately  expresses  FroebeFs  conception  of 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


71 


the  race-comprising  man,  the  whole-including  unit. 
How  sublimely  perfect  is  the  ideal  of  community  that 
conceives  a  unity  of  race-revealing  men!  How  great  a 
thought  this  is  for  an  educational  ideal! 

Froebel  fixed  no  limit  of  time  for  the  realization  of 
this  ideal.  He  knew  that  individual  and  race  evolution 
must  be  gradual,  but  he  knew  also  that  race  deteriora- 
tion would  continue  until  the  eflfort  of  the  race  was 
made  toward  a  true  ideal.  His  educational  aim  was  to 
give  each  individual  power  to  achieve  the  best  culture  of 
the  race  up  to  date,  a  matured  consciousness  of  race  re- 
lationship, and  a  joyous  sense  of  the  highest  privilege  of 
a  human  being — to  aid  humanity  in  its  upward  evolu- 
tion. This  ideal  gives  a  new  glory  to  individuality  and 
adds  dignity  to  manhood.  Already  there  are  evidences 
to  show  that  it  is  beginning  to  revolutionize  theological 
as  well  as  educational  ideals.  In  revealing  the  majesty 
of  the  child  and  the  community  of  mankind — the  per- 
fect unity  between  individualism  and  socialism — Froe- 
bel is  Christ's  truest  interpreter. 

Froebel  made  the  inner  connection  between  Na- 
ture, man,  and  God  the  basis  of  the  early  study  of  Na- 
ture, and  the  foundation  on  which  he  rested  the  child's 
first  development  in  the  recognition  of  life  and  its  evo- 
lution, which  in  later  years  was  to  form  one  of  the  main 
centres  with  which  its  religious  conceptions  were  to  be 
associated.  He  aimed  "  to  build  up  a  life  which  should 
be  everywhere  in  touch  with  God,  with  physical  nature, 
and  with  humanity  at  large."  He  strongly  emphasized 
the  principle  that  "  if  man  is  fully  to  attain  his  des- 
tiny, so  far  as  earthly  development  will  permit  this,  if 
he  is  to  become  truly  an  unbroken  living  unit,  he  mi^si 


mr 


72 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I  if 


feel  and  know  himself  to  be  one,  not  only  with  God  and 
humanity,  hut  also  with  Nature."  lie  saw  in  the  unity 
and  evolution  of  Nature  the  best  types  for  I  lie  reve- 
lation of  spiritual  unity  and  human  evolution  to  the 
child.  Material  environment  is  the  best  revcaler  of  the 
spiritual  to  the  child,  as  it  was  to  the  race  in  its  earliest 
stage  of  development.  Even  to  the  adult  whose  spirit 
is  responsive  to  Nature,  whose  imagination  can  co-ordi- 
nate the  harmonies  of  the  universe,  Nature  ever  speaks 
clearly,  and  is  the  best  visible  type  of  the  invisible. 

Froebel  was  not  a  pantheist,  but  he  saw  (Jod  in  all 
things.  Through  Nature  he  would  lead  the  child  to  see 
unity,  and  ultimately  (iod  as  the  source  and  centre  of  all 
unity,  including  itself.  I^y  a  loving  study  and  nurture 
of  the  life  in  Nature  and  of  its  gradual  evolution  to- 
ward higher  types  by  culture  and  by  the  intorf  nut  idea- 
tion of  the  finest  related  specinu^ns  to  form  a  unity  of 
the  fittest,  he  gave  the  idea  of  life  unity  and  progressive 
development  toward  more  perfect  form  and  higher 
function.  By  the  development  of  plant  life  in  con- 
tinuously improving  forms  he  foreshadowed  the  later 
conception  of  the  evolution  of  human  life,  and  finally 
completed  the  ever-widening,  ever-ascending  secpience 
of  life  in  God  himself. 

lie  believed  that  if  children  are  brought  up  amid 
the  life  of  Nature,  in  due  time  thev  become  conscious 
of  a  moral  strengthening  from  the  surrounding  nature, 
as  definitely  as  they  become  conscious  of  physical 
strengthening  from  the  surrounding  atmosphere. 

Froebel  regarded  a  tree  as  the  "  most  expressive  sym- 
bol of  all  organization,  'bet  her  of  natural  or  of  intel- 
lectual life,"    IJe  found  ia  each  tree  harmony  within 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


78 


itself,  a  characteristic  similarity  between  bark  and 
trunk,  and  branches  and  leaves;  individuality  in  the  dis- 
tinctive form  and  foliage  of  each  kind  of  tree;  variety 
(an  essential  in  perfi'ct  unity)  in  the  different  parts  and 
distinctions  between  dilferent  kinds  of  trees;  and  unity 
in  the  correspondences  between  all  trees  and  all  parts  ol 
the  same  tree.  His  type  of  unity  in  the  solid  was  the 
sphere,  and  in  plane  figures  the  circle. 

In  a  conversation  with  Diesterweg  he  gave  perhaps 
the  fullest  statement  of  the  interrelationships  existing 
between  (iod,  man,  and  Nature.  "What  other  objects 
of  our  knowledge  exist,"  he  asks,  "  but  Gody  man,  Na- 
ture? What  other  task  can  our  intellect  have  than  to 
find  the  relation  between  these  three  sole  existing  ob- 
jects? The  first  thing  for  the  human  mind  is  to  draw 
the  synthesis  God  in  Nature^  Nature  front  God  (the  his- 
tory of  creation);  then  follows  the  synthesis  the  Divine 
Spirit  in  humanity,  the  hvman  spirit  from  God,  or  the 
Christian  revelation  through  Jesus  Christ  (God-man). 
Now,  there  is  yet  to  be  drawn  the  j^ynthesis  between 
humanity  and  Nature,  and  thus  to  recognize  the  tri- 
unity  which  makes  up  the  result  of  this  connection  or  uni- 
fying of  npposites.*^ 

Thus  he  made  human  life  the  unifying  element  in 
the  triunity,  the  link  l)<^tween  the  unconscious  life  of 
Nature  and  the  "  all-conscious  mind  "  ;  between  the  ma- 
terial nature  and  the  spiritual  God;  as  miin  possesses 
both  the  bodily  and  the  spiritual  natures,  becoming  more 
like  God  as  liis  spiritual  nature  dominates  the  material. 

Another  and  a  most  important  phase  of  Froebel's 
all-comprehending  law  of  unity  is  the  reconciliation  of 
apparent  contradictions,  the  harmonizing  of  opposites, 


■ 

ll 


74 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


or  the  connection  of  contrasts.  It  constitutes  the  philo- 
sophical basis  of  the  law  of  development  or  unification. 
It  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  law  of  mediation.  Froe- 
bel  usually  spoke  of  it  simply  as  the  "  law  of  opposites," 
and  his  estimate  of  its  importance  may  be  found  in  the 
brief  statement,  "  The  first  law  of  all  phenomena  is  the 
law  of  opposites."  He  used  the  word  phenomena  in 
this  sentence  in  its  most  inclusive  sense,  as  applied  to  the 
material,  the  intellectual,  and  the  spiritual  world. 
"  Everything  and  every  being  comes  to  be  known  only 
as  it  is  connected  with  the  opposite  of  its  kind,  and  as  its 
unity,  its  agreement  with  this  opposite,  its  equation  with 
reference  to  this  is  discovered;  and  the  completeness 
of  this  knowledge  depends  upon  the  completeness  of 
this  connection  with  the  respective  opposite,  and  upon 
the  complete  discovery  of  the  connecting  thought  or 
link."  Large  and  small,  high  and  low,  up  and  down,  above 
and  below,  behind  and  before,  inside  and  outside,  right 
and  left,  forward  and  backward,  hard  and  soft,  light  and 
heavy,  old  and  young,  good  and  evil,  love  and  hate, 
beauty  and  ugliness,  strength  and  weakness,  generosity 
and  meanness,  health  and  sickness,  freedom  and  slavery, 
are  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  FroebeFs  theory.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  freedom  without  a  consciousness 
of  what  restriction  means.  The  child  learns  what  free- 
dom and  restriction  mean  by  noting  the  difference  in  the 
lives  of  animals  and  birds,  and  too  often  by  bitter  ex- 
perience. It  notes  the  difference  between  the  free  bird 
or  squirrel  or  fish  and  those  confined  in  cage  or  aquarium. 
The  harnessed  horse  at  work  guided  by  the  bridle  or 
reins  and  the  colt  that  roams  at  will  in  the  field,  and 
many  other  external  illustrations,  gradually  make  it  con- 


FROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


75 


8ciou8  of  freedom  and  restriction,  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  one  depends  on  the  clearness  with  which  the  other  is 
comprehended.  In  its  own  experience  it  gradually  comes 
to  realize  the  distinction  between  confinement  in  the 
house,  or  at  school,  or  at  work,  and  the  freedom  of  play. 
Some  of  its  plays,  such  as  "  prisoner's  base,"  evidently 
had  their  origin  in  the  unfolding  of  the  ideal  of  freedom, 
and  are  a  part  of  Nature's  plan  for  revealing  the  concep- 
tion of  liberty;  Through  life  everything  that  makes  lack 
of  freedom  a  more  definite  conception  makes  the  idea  of 
freedom  more  clear  and  complete.  The  cells  in  the 
Tower  of  London  and  the  triple  walls  of  the  innermost 
dungeon  of  the  old  Spanish  fort  at  St.  Augustine,  with 
its  cruel  chains  and  midnight  darkness  into  which  no 
ray  of  sunlight  ever  came,  have  helped  to  define  the 
thought  of  liberty  in  the  minds  of  all  who  have  ever  been 
in  them. 

As  the  child  develops,  its  idea  of  bodily  freedom 
gradually  evolves  into  a  conception  of  mental  and  spirit- 
ual freedom. 

Health  is  never  understood  until  sickness  reveals  its 
true  meaning.  Carlyle  did  not  know  he  had  a  stomach 
till  he  was  nearly  thirty  years  of  age,  and  then  his  dread- 
ful eoemy,  dyspepsia,  kept  him  in  constant  remem- 
brance of  the  fact.  So  throughout  the  range  of  our 
knowledf,e — of  time,  space,  dimension,  colour,  etc. — the 
knowledge  is  made  clear  by  clear  conception  of  oppo- 
sites. 

But  Froebel  considered  the  conception  of  opposites 

to  b'^  but  the  first  step  in  true  knowledge.    The  connec- 

)n  of  the  opposites  is  the  completion  of  knowledge.  The 

life  of  the  knowledge  is  in  the  unification  of  the  opposites. 


!'• 


76 


FKOEUEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I  l^^l 


V 


Miss  lilow  says  with  niiuh  force:  "  An  isolated  fact  is  a 
dead  fact;  a  fact  seen  only  in  its  relations  is  still  a  dying 
fact;  grasped  in  its  total  process  it  is  a  living  and  life-giv- 
ing fact."  Organization,  linking  together  "  thought  in 
process,"  sequence,  was  the  great  aim  of  Froebel's  edu- 
cation. The  Mother  Play  abounds  in  plays  which  are 
but  types  of  others,  that  he  hoped  mothers  or  educators 
would  devise  for  children,  and  in  which  the  process  of 
linking  together,  especially  the  linking  of  the  child  with 
the  family,  Nature,  society,  and  God  is  revealed  not  by 
words,  but  by  activity;  the  deed  laying  the  foundation 
of  the  thought.  This  he  believed  to  be  the  true  basis  not 
only  for  profitable  thinking  but  for  logical  reasoning. 
From  the  result  to  the  cause  the  child  proceeds  step  by 
step,  learning  social  relationships  and  interdependence 
and  the  inner  connection  of  all  things;  and  learning  to 
think  logically  at  the  same  time.  Speaking  of  the  pat-a- 
cake  play  (baker),  for  instance,  he  says:  "  Does  any 
o^her  connection  rule  in  philosophical  deduction  than 
the  one  I  call  the  child  to  perceive  in  this  game?  The 
logic  is  and  remains  a  consecutive  thinking  and  con- 
clusion, whether  applied  to  the  things  themselves  or  to 
the  abstract  conceptions  of  things." 

The  so-called  object  teaching  of  England  and  Amer- 
ica was  utterly  at  variance  with  Froebel's  fundamental 
law  because  it  taught  isolated  facts  by  material  things. 
He  demanded  for  the  child  not  only  knowledge,  but 
knowledge  in  use  as  part  of  a  unified  process.  He  used 
things  in  his  system  not  that  they  might  be  studied,  but 
that  they  might  become  a  means  of  expressing  the  child's 
conceptions,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  of  de- 
fining them  in  such  a  way  under  wise  guidance  as  to 


PUOEBELS  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


77 


reveal  universal  inner  connection.  The  "  discovery  of 
the  connecting  thought  or  link  "  as  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple in  philosopliy  and  as  a  means  of  awakening  the 
mind  and  widening  its  range  of  conscious  activity  was 
Froebel's  educational  purpose. 

rroebel's  system,  so  far  as  he  had  completed  it,  was 
planned  to  give  every  child  very  early  in  life  an  insight 
into  tlie  law  of  the  reconciliation  of  opposites.  Begin- 
ning with  the  ball  as  his  first  gift,  he  worked  outward 
from  it  in  a  logical  sequence  through  all  his  gifts.  His 
principle  of  mediation  is  exemplified  in  his  second  gift, 
in  which  the  cylinder,  possessing  some  of  the  properties 
of  both  the  ball  and  the  cube,  forms  the  connecting  link 
between  them.  It  is  admirably  revealed  to  the  child  by 
its  own  activity  in  his  drawing  processes,  his  stick 
laying,  his  paper  pasting,  and  tablet  and  ring  work,  in 
each  of  which  the  child  is  led  to  produce  most  beautiful 
symmetrical  designs  by  conforming  to  the  law  which 
unifies  by  bringing  opposites  into  harmony  about  a  cen- 
tre or  a  series  of  centres.  His  colour  work  made  the  law 
a  part  of  the  child's  experience  by  leading  it  to  mix  col- 
ours to  produce  other  colours,  and  thereby  helping  it  to 
recognize  the  law  of  unity  in  colour. 

The  play  of  The  Bridge  is  intended  to  symbolize 
the  reconciliation  of  contrasts.  This  thought  is  kept  in 
view  in  all  the  detailed  work  he  planned.  His  aim  was, 
without  specially  directing  the  attention  of  the  child  to 
the  fact,  to  make  him  live  in  a  well-knit  world  in  which, 
whatever  path  he  took,  he  would  find  closely  related  ex- 
periences; so  that  he  would  live  in  an  atmosphere  of 
continuity  which  would  prepare  his  mind  for  the  clearer 
realization  of  the  philosophy  of  unity  and  the  unity  of 


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PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


philosophy  in  maturer  years.  "  The  triple  unity  of  God 
is  obvious  in  all  his  works  to  eyes  that  can  see.  Have  we 
not  always  and  everywhere  a  trinity  composed  of  contrasts 
and  their  intermedium?" 

FroebeFs  conception  of  unity  led  him  to  see  the 
need  of  the  correlation  of  the  subjects  to  be  taught  in 
school.  This  application  of  his  fundamental  law  will  be 
considered  in  a  chapter  specially  devoted  to  itself. 

By  whatever  name  the  law  of  unity  may  be  described — 
development,  evolution,  continuity,  connectedness,  in- 
terrelationship, interdependence,  interstimulation,  or 
life  unity — it  is  a  vital  law  of  psychology,  of  pedagogy,  of 
philosophy,  of  life.  Every  phase  of  it  is  important.  All 
its  aspects  are  really  one,  in  unity  with  each  other,  but 
applications  of  the  same  great  principle.  It  applies  to 
individual  man  in  the  continuity  of  the  stages  of  his 
growth,  in  the  relationships  of  his  varied  powers,  and 
in  the  activity  of  his  intellectual  faculties;  it  applies 
to  the  interdependence  of  individual  man  in  families,  so- 
cial groups,  nations,  and  of  all  these  in  the  community 
of  the  race,  and  the  supreme  unity  of  all  in  God.  It  is 
what  he  longed  to  find — "  a  certain  way  of  freeing  human 
life  from  contradiction  and  of  restoring  man  to  him- 
self, at  peace  internally."  It  aims  to  make  perfectly 
free,  independent,  self-directing,  unity-recognizing  in- 
dividuals as  the  only  way  of  securing  a  perfect  human- 
ity, an  organized  unity,  perfect  because  each  is  a  unity 
having  within  himself  the  best  elements  of  racial  devel- 
opment, and  yet  each  possessing  a  distinct  individuality 
of  his  own.  The  individual  is  never  lost  in  FroebePs 
unity.  The  more  strikingly  diverse  the  individual  ele- 
ments are  the  more  complete  the  unity.    Contrasts  aiicl 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


diversities  are  but  complements  to  each  other.  Sameness 
is  not  unity. 

He  made  unity  the  groundwork  of  all  educational 
work,  and  his  thought  is  beginning  to  guide  the  best  edu- 
cational investigation.  He  summarizes  the  educational 
aspects  of  the  law  in  a  pregnant  sentence:  "  The  knowl- 
edge of  that  eternal  law,  the  insight  into  its  origin,  into 
its  essence,  into  the  totality,  the  connection  and  intensity 
of  its  effects,  the  knowledge  of  life  in  its  totality,  consti- 
tute science,  the  science  of  life;  and,  referred  by  the  self- 
conscious,  thinking,  intelligent  being  to  representation 
and  practice  through  and  in  himself,  this  becomes  the 
science  of  education.*' 

As  has  been  beautifully  pointed  out  by  the  Baroness 
von  Billow,  Froebel  by  his  law  of  unity  aimed  to  accom- 
plish more  than  is  usually  comprehended  in  the  word 
education,  although  not  more  than  Froebel  himself 
meant  by  education.  **  All  the  domains  of  human  life 
nre  necessarily  penetrated  with  one  spirit;  and  since  they 
a>o  :inked  together  as  independent  organs,  they  must 
form  conscious  parts  of  the  whole,  which  is  human  soci- 
ety." "  To  that  end,  at  some  future  time,  science  and 
art,  as  well  as  all  the  active  principles  of  human  life, 
justice  and  religion  (or  state  and  Church),  mus/  be  pene- 
trated with  the  same  spirit  of  truth  and  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  one  aim  of  serving  humanity,  perfected  accord- 
ing to  the  thought  of  God — that  is,  *the  kingdom  of 
God  upon  eath.'  This  aim,  mutual  love,  penetrating  all 
individuals,  must  unite  them  into  a  living,  self-conscious 
whole,  which  then  represents  a  spiritualized  or  glorified 
humanity." 

Such,  indeed;  was  Froebel's  aim,  and  to  mothers  and 


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FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


teachers  he  looked  for  help  in  the  gradual  evolution  of 
the  race  to  the  complete  fulfilment  of  its  high  destiny. 
It  is  no  vain  theory.  It  is  more  than  a  pleasing  but  il- 
lusory vision  of  a  transcendentalist.  It  may  become 
a  reality.  There  is  in  each  child  an  element  of  the  divine 
which  renders  it  possible  for  it  to  attain  a  marvellous  de- 
velopment in  even  a  single  generation.  What  limit  dare 
man  lay  to  the  cumulated  development  of  a  race  com- 
posed of  such  evolutionary  individuals  when  the  child 
and  the  myriad  and  multiplex  agencies  that  mould  it  are 
studied  so  carefully  that  it  may  be  truly  guided  in  its 
upward  growth  by  wise  and  noble  teachers? 

There  are  many  indications  to  show  that  Froebel's 
idea  of  unity,  Christ's  idea  of  unity,  is  really  becoming 
a  dominant  thought  in  human  progress.  Social,  educa- 
tional, and  religious  organization  and  co-ordination  have 
been  the  greatest  movements  of  the  second  generation 
since  FroebePs  death.  Not  only  are  these  different  ele- 
ments uniting  in  leagues  of  various  developing  kinds 
within  themselves,  but  a  much  higher  kind  of  unifica- 
tion has  begun  by  the  co-ordinating  of  all  the  forces  of 
human  progress.  Froebel's  work  will  always  plead  for 
this  co-ordination  of  effort  around  "the  little  child." 
The  mothers'  classes  now  being  organized  in  all  civilized 
countries  by  kindergartners  are  revivals  of  the  confer- 
ences begun  by  Christ,  when  he  "  set  a  little  child  "  in 
the  centre  of  his  group  of  students  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago. 

The  rapid  development  of  socialism  and  trades 
unions  proves  that  the  human  mind  is  being  penetrated 
with  the  thought  of  rising  together.  "In  union  is 
strength,"  is  a  part  of  the  truth  that  Froebel  taught. 

\ 


II' 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


81 


¥ 


Even  the  spread  of  individualism  as  opposed  to  socialism 
is  a  hopeful  evidence  of  a  movement  toward  ultimate 
right.  It  is  the  outcome  of  the  realization  by  humanity 
of  the  dignity  and  the  sacredness  of  its  individuality. 
This  must  precede  the  final  triumph  of  the  race.  Perfect 
individualism  is  the  only  basis  for  perfect  socialism. 
Race-including  men  will  unite  to  form  a  man-respect- 
ing race. 

FroebePs  law  of  unity  is  of  practical  value  to  teach- 
ers in  many  ways.  It  teaches  the  hopeful  law  of  devel- 
opment, and  therefore  gives  teachers  a  higher  ideal  and 
a  more  encouraging  outlook.  They  are  no  longer  in- 
structors merely,  they  are  character  builders,  who 
should  be  mighty  agents  in  accomplishing  the  final  unity 
of  humanity,  and  of  humanity  with  God.  They  no 
longer  value  knowledge  more  than  the  child  who  is  to 
receive  it. 

It  reveals  the  great  importance  of  the  study  of  child- 
hood, boyhood,  and  youth,  in  order  to  learn  definitely  the 
nature  of  the  culture  epochs  and  nascent  periods  of  each, 
and  the  best  means  of  revealing  knowledge,  life  unity, 
and  duty  at  each  stage  of  development.  It  specially 
shows  the  need  of  the  preparatory  symbolic  education 
of  the  first  period  of  child  evolution. 

It  teaches  that  isolated  knowledge  is  unproductive, 
and  that  it  will  not  remain  in  the  mind,  even  when  rela- 
tionship is  shown  by  explanations  or  illustrations  by  the 
teacher.  The  living  process  of  relationship  must  be 
thought  out,  and,  if  possible,  wrought  out  by  the  pupil 
himself,  in  order  to  make  the  knowledge  a  positive  ele- 
ment in  character.  This  was  FroebeFs  idea  of  appercep- 
tion— active,  positive  apperception.    It  was  also  the  basis 


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82 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


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of  his  law  of  correlation.  Not  only  are  "  isolated  facta 
dead  facts,"  separated  subjects  have  only  a  partial  vital- 
izing power.    Isolation  always  leads  to  death. 

It  teaches  that  it  is  wrong  to  give  formal  knowledge 
before  laying  a  foundation  for  it  by  establishing  apper- 
ceptive centres  for  it  by  experience.  All  teachers  admit 
that  ihe  work  of  the  teacher  in  educating  a  child  must 
be  based  on  the  content  of  its  mind.  It  is  admitted  also 
that  the  experiences  of  some  children  are  wider  and  more 
productive  of  rich  content  than  the  experiences  of 
others.  Froebel  would  not  leave  any  child's  experiences 
to  chance.  He  planned  a  comprehensive  system  of  ex- 
periences to  develop  not  only  apperceptive  centres  of 
knowledge,  to  which  other  knowledge  could  be  joined 
in  vital  unity,  but  also  apperceptive  insights  of  relation- 
ship and  apperceptive  motives  of  interest.  Formal 
mathematics  should  not  reveal  space  relations,  but  result 
from  them.  Science  study  should  be  based  on  a  rever- 
ent love  for  the  life  of  Nature.  The  science  of  language 
can  not  be  profitably  taught  until  conscious  expression 
has  become  a  joyous  experience.  Formal  morality  will 
deaden  moral  feeling,  unless  the  concepts  of  life  and  love 
have  been  developed  by  the  life  of  Nature  and  the  love  of 
home.  Teachers  should  learn  from  the  law  of  unity  to 
value  physical  and  spiritual  development  more  highly, 
so  highly  that  they  will  make  as  systematic  efforts  for 
their  development  as  are  now  made  to  give  intellectual 
culture.  Until  they  do  so  the  law  of  unity  will  be  vio- 
lated. 

They  should  also  learn  the  importance  of  training 
executive  power  as  the  only  certain  source  of  thorough 
training  for  the  receptive  and  reflective  powers,  and  the 


f  !|i'' 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  LAW. 


83 


m 


only  means  by  which  these  powers  can  be  made  of  service 
to  the  individual  or  to  humanity. 

The  law  of  reconciliation  of  contrasts  or  opposites 
should  enable  teachers  to  understand  the  harmony  be- 
tween control  and  spontaneity.  They  should  make  this 
the  foundation  law  of  discipline.  It  is  the  "  perfect  law 
of  liberty."  Perfect  spontaneity  and  complete  submis- 
sion to  law  are  fond  lovers.  Every  teacher  should  per- 
form the  ceremony  of  uniting  these  lovers  in  the  life  of 
the  child.  No  teacher  is  fully  qualified  until  prepared  for 
this  high  service. 

Silently  cherish  your  baby's  dim  thought 

That  life  in  itself  is  as  unity  wrought. 

Hake  paths  through  which  he  may  feel  and  may  think 

That  of  this  great  whole  he,  too,  is  a  link. 


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CHAPTER  IV. 


1 1 


fbobbel's  fundamental  process:  self-activity. 

** Man  is  a creatiye  being"— Froebel. 
*'  Knowledge  is  food,  but  creation  is  life." — Miss  Blow. 
*'  We  must  launch  the  child  from  its  birth  into  the  free  and 
•ll-sided  use  of  its  povrers^—Froebel, 

When  FroebePs  law  of  creative  self-activity  is  un- 
derstood 80  thoroughly  as  to  become  a  fundamental 
element  in  the  practical  work  of  teachers,  it  will  be 
recognised  as  the  most  important  law  of  method  ever 
discovered.  It  is  the  universal  test  for  good  teaching 
and  the  unfailing  revealer  of  bad  methods.  "  Self- 
activity  "  and  "  spontaneity  "  become  dead  words  unless 
the  principles  they  represent  are  practised.  All  truth 
dies  in  the  mind  unless  it  is  lived  out  in  practice.  No 
truth  is  clear  to  any  individual  until  he  has  applied  it. 
There  are  thousands  of  teachers  who  can  define  "  self- 
activity"  who  never  give  their  pupils  an  opportunity 
to  be  self -active. 

One  of  the  most  important  lessons  for  teachers  is  the 
distinction  between  activity  and  self-activity,  between 
expression  and  self-expression,  as  revealed  by  Froebel. 
Froebel's  law  of  self-activity  meant  much  more  than 
the  law  of  Comenius  as  commonly  understood,  that 

84 


FKOEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCBSS. 


"  children  learn  to  do  by  doing,"  or  the  common  maxim, 
"  Practice  makes  perfect."  He  distinguished  very  clear- 
ly between  the  activity  of  the  child  in  response  to  the 
suggestion  or  instruction  of  its  parents  or  teachers  and 
activity  in  carrying  out  its  own  impulses  or  decisions. 
Thia  distinction  is  the  basis  of  the  most  comprehensive 
law  of  method  in  child  development. 

Froebel  knew  that  the  activity  of  the  child  itself, 
even  when  directed  by  the  teacher,  is  better,  infinitely 
better,  than  receptive  passivity;  but  he  believed  that 
selfhood  or  individuality,  like  all  other  powers,  must 
be  developed  by  activity  or  "  exercise  of  function,"  and 
he  therefore  gave  to  selfhood  its  rightful  place  as  the 
guide  of  the  child's  powers  when  they  are  being  exer- 
cised in  learning.  Other  educators  had  developed  cer- 
tain of  the  child's  powers  by  practice;  he  did  this,  but 
much  more,  by  his  law  of  self-activity.  At  the  same 
time  that  he  trained  the  individual  powers  of  a  child 
he  developed  its  individuality.  Individuality  and  the 
individual  powers  should  be  clearly  distinguished.  In- 
dividuality is  the  originating  and  controlling  element 
that  starts  the  individual  powers  to  act,  and  guides  them 
while  at  work.  The  power  to  work  and  the  wisdom 
that  enables  us  to  work  effectively  are  not  enough  to 
insure  productive  activity  in  character.  The  motive 
power  of  character  is  even  more  important  than  the 
operative  power,  and  should  be  trained  even  more  defi- 
nitely. As  motive  power  is  higher  than  operative  power, 
it  is  more  susceptible  to  training. 

Mr.  Hailman,  one  of  the  most  sjrmpathetic  of  Froe- 
bel's  interpreters,  distinguishes  Froebel's  self-activity 
from  the  restricted  ideal  of  other  educators:  "  Self- 


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>;!> 


'i 


86 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


activity,  in  Froebel's  sense  of  the  word,  implies  not 
merely  that  the  learner  shall  do  all  himself,  not  merely 
that  he  will  be  benefited  only  by  what  he  does;  it  im- 
plies that  at  all  times  his  whole  self  shall  be  active,  that 
the  activity  should  enlist  his  entire  self  in  all  the  phases 
of  being.  The  law  of  self-activity  demands  not  activity 
alone,  but  all-sided  activity  of  the  whole  being,  the 
whole  self.  Froebel's  self-activity  applies  to  the  whole 
being;  it  would  have  all  that  is  in  the  child  self-actively 
growing,  simultaneously  and  continuously." 

Froebel's  law  of  unity  led  him  to  believe  that  if  the 
motive  power  and  the  operative  power  are  not  trained 
at  the  same  time,  neither  can  attain  its  best  develop- 
ment. He  did  not  think  it  wise  to  train  the  various 
operative  powers  separately,  and  then  trust  to  chance 
for  the  development  of  the  originating  and  directing 
powers  to  guide  them.  He  taught  that  the  originating 
and  controlling  powers  must  be  developed  by  free  exer- 
cise just  as  all  other  powers  have  to  be  developed,  and 
that  the  operative  powers  act  with  greater  vigour  in  re- 
sponse to  internal  than  to  external  stimulation.  In  this 
way  he  saw  that  true  self-activity,  activity  that  origi- 
nates in  the  mind  of  the  individual  who  acts,  is  the 
most  productive  kind  of  activity  in  the  development  of 
operative  power,  controlling  power,  and  originating 
power.  ^ 

'  Several  educators  have  seen  the  advantages  of  activ- 
ity for  the  training  of  operative  power;  a  few  have  noted 
its  influence  indirectly  on  the  will  or  controlling  power. 
Froebei  alone  saw  that  education  is  defective  at  its  most 
vital  point  if  the  originating  element  of  character  is 
left  untrained. 


PROBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


87 


The  development  of  educational  aims  has  been  a  pro- 
gressive series  of  advancing  steps,  first  through  the  par- 
tial culture  of  the  child's  self,  and  later  by  a  partial 
training  by  activity.  Froebel  aimed  to  give  a  complete 
training  to  self  and  the  activity  of  self  by  the  law  of 
self-activity. 

The  child's  powers  may  be  classified  as  receptive, 
reflective,  and  executive.  The  receptive  powers  accumu- 
late knowledge,  the  reflective  powers  classify  knowl- 
edge and  prepare  it  for  use,  the  executive  powers  apply 
or  use  the  knowledge  gathered  by  the  receptive  powers 
and  classified  by  the  reflective  powers.  Executive  power 
means  more  than  administrative  ability.  It  means 
power  to  execute  well  what  we  know,  to  do  what  we 
plan,  to  be  in  progressive  action  all  we  are  in  matured 
thought  and  defined  feeling.  It  means  man's  power 
to  control  circumstances  and  mould  them  in  harmony 
with  great  original  purposes.  It  enables  him  to  repre- 
sent his  best  conceptions  in  productive  activity.  It  is 
the  power  that  impels  a  man  to  "  do  noble  things,  not 
dream  them  all  day  long."  It  decides  his  influence  on 
his  fellow-men  as  a  co-operative  agent  working  in  har- 
mony with  God. 

The  history  of  educational  progress  may  be  divided 
into  three  periods  based  on  the  attention  paid  to  the 
three  classes  of  the  child's  powers.  At  first  only  the 
receptive  powers  were  trained,  then  the  teflective,  and, 
finally,  the  executive  powers  or  the  activities.  In  the 
evolution  toward  complete  self-activity  there  has  been 
in  each  of  the  periods  named  a  passive  and  an  active 
stage.  Whether  educators  aimed  to  develop  the  recep- 
tive, the  reflective,  or  the  executive  powers,  they  began 


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88 


PROEBEL'8  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


in  each  case  by  keeping  the  pupil  in  a  passive  or  de> 
pendent  position.  This  makes  six  distinct  steps  in  the 
evolution  of  educational  ideals. 

In  passive  receptivity  the  pupil  received  knowledge 
from  the  teacher.  Good  teaching  comprised  good  tell- 
ing and  good  listening.  The  aim  was  the  communica- 
tion of  knowledge.  The  ideal  teacher  was  the  one  who 
could  give  most  information  in  the  shortest  time  and 
in  the  most  interesting  manner.  The  model  pupil  was 
the  one  who  could  listen  longest  and  remember  best 
what  he  heard.  Good  pupils  were  those  who,  while  in 
school,  could  seem  dead  in  all  powers  save  hearing,  re- 
membering, and  repeating  what  was  told  them  by  their 
teacher.  They  had  to  keep  their  eyes  open,  too,  not 
that  they  were  required  to  see  much,  but  as  an  evidence 
that  they  were  awake.  Bad  pupils  were  those  who  were 
alive  beyond  the  prescribed  limit,  and  those  most  fully 
alive  were  considered  the  most  rebellious  and  least  hope- 
ful pupils.  When  books  were  used,  the  pupils  were  ex- 
pected to  memorize  the  words  in  their  text-books  as 
answers  to  questions  set  by  their  teachers.  No  change 
was  made  in  the  form  of  the  question  and  no  variation  al- 
lowed in  the  words  of  the  answer.  The  comprehension 
of  the  meaning  of  the  answers  and  the  relationship  to 
knowledge  already  in  the  mind  often  received  little  con- 
sideration. 

In  active  receptivity  the  pupil  became  an  independ- 
ent accumulator  of  knowledge.  He  was  trained  to  in- 
vestigate for  himself.  He  dealt  with  things  as  well  as 
words.  When  he  used  books  for  the  purpose  of  study 
he  was  emancipated  from  the  slavery  of  memorizing 
and  repeating  the  exact  words  of  the  text-book,  and 

'   ■■■     .  '1 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


80 


trained  to  search  for  truth  as  recorded  by  the  wisest 
of  his  predecessors. 

In  passive  reflection  the  pupils  were  led  by  their 
teachers  through  the  steps  of  logical  processes,  but  they 
were  not  trained  to  think  independently.  It  gradually 
became  clear  that  "  allowing  other  people's  thoughts 
to  run  through  our  minds  "  is  not  really  thinking,  and 
that  such  a  process  weakens  originality  and  tends  to 
make  men  subservient  to  existing  conditions  as  estab- 
lished by  custom  and  conventionality. 

Active  reflection  trained  pupils  to  think  independ- 
ently and  to  respect  their  own  opinions.  This  step  was 
a  great  advance  in  intellectual  training  and  toward  the 
complete  liberty  of  the  race. 

A  still  greater  advance  was  made  when  educators 
began  to  realize  that  knowledge  and  intellectual  power 
are  of  value  only  as  they  are  used,  and  that  the  ability  to 
use  knowledge  and  apply  power  may  be  trained,  and 
must  be  trained,  if  trained  at  all,  by  being  exercised. 
This  soon  revealed  the  important  truth  that  the  training 
of  the  executive  powers  is  the  only  certain  method  of 
storing  the  mind  with  clearly  related  knowledge  and 
giving  the  power  to  think  definitely.  Receptive  power, 
reflective  power,  and  executive  power  form  a  sequence, 
which  should  be  developed  as  a  unity.  The  lower  steps 
of  the  sequence  are  not  complete  in  themselves.  They 
find  their  logical  completion  in  the  highest  step,  and 
therefore  they  can  reach  their  true  culture  only  in  di- 
rect relation  to  and  connection  with  that  step. 

But  even  in  the  training  of  the  executive  powers 
the  domination  of  the  teacher  retained  its  blighting 
influence  until  the  time  of  Froebel.     Montaigne  and 


'■a 


:    ■.»• 


I  ill  i 


^w 


90 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


i  '•. 


Rousseau  had  seen  the  evil  influence  of  adult  interfer- 
ence or  overshadowing,  and  had  dimly  outlined  the  need 
of  freedom  for  true  individual  growth  by  individual 
activity.  Froebel  grasped  this  germ  of  thought  in  its  ful- 
ness, and  made  it  the  fundamental  principle  underlying 
the  practical  methods  of  his  system.  He  made  a  vital 
distinction  between  activity  and  self-activity,  between 
expression  and  self-expression.  There  is  more  differ- 
ence between  the  results  of  passivity  and  self-activity 
c  1  the  part  of  the  pupils  in  the  training  of  the  executive 
powers  than  in  the  culture  of  the  receptive  or  reflective 
powers.  The  higher  the  educational  process,  the  weaker 
does  passivity  appear,  and  the  more  limitless  do  the 
possibilities  of  activities  become. 

The  old  educational  processes  are  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many  men  like  Mr. 
Leigh  described  by  Canon  Kingsley  as  one  of  those  men 
"  who  possess  almost  every  gift  except  the  gift  of  the 
power  to  use  them."  Every  so-called  educated  man 
who  fails  to  use  his  powers  wisely  and  fully,  because  his 
selfhood  has  not  been  revealed  to  him  and  trained  to 
perform  its  proper  function  by  directing  his  energies 
independently,  is  an  unripe  apple  falling  to  set  educa- 
tional Newtons  thinking. 

Every  child  has  individual  power.  This  power  is  in- 
tended to  guide  the  child's  energies.  It  does  guide  them 
until  the  child  is  weakened  by  misdirection  or  by  the 
substitution  of  the  teacher's  authority  as  a  motive  power 
stimulating  the  child's  action.  Then  selfhood  grad- 
ually weakens  from  lack  of  opportunity  for  exercise, 
and  the  child  becomes  listless  and  indifferent.  An  indo- 
le»t  child  is  an  unnatural  cjiild.    Children  are  made 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


91 


indolent  by  failure  to  develop  their  motive  character 
power.  Energetic  effort  at  productive  work  gives  them 
pleasure  when  it  possesses  the  elements  of  self-stimula- 
tion and  self-direction.  The  child's  powers  of  self- 
stimulation  and  self-direction  are  dwarfed  by  lack  of 
opportunity  for  activity,  and  in  such  conditions  the 
child  ultimately  becomes  inert,  and  acts  mainly  in  re- 
sponse to  external  stimulus.  There  is  little  use  in  train- 
ing the  child's  receptive  powers  or  its  reflective  powers 
unless  its  personality  is  trained  at  the  same  time  to  set 
them  in  motion  and  guide  them  aright. 

Power  is  given  to  man  that  it  may  be  used  in  co- 
operation with  God.  Power  so  used  always  increases. 
The  highest  ideal  of  human  duty  is  co-operation  with 
Divinity.  The  grandest  conception  of  human  destiny 
is  growth  toward  the  Divine,  and  destiny  is  reached 
through  duty.  The  truest  conception  of  duty  is  action 
for  truth  and  justice  in  which  the  inception  as  well  as 
the  execution  of  the  act  bears  the  stamp  of  individuality. 
Co-operation  means  more  than  acting  in  concert  in 
obedience  to  a  single  leader.  The  perfect  co-operation 
is  that  in  which  each  individual  has  a  common  purpose, 
toward  the  accomplishment  of  which  he  works  as  a  free 
man.  Mankind  should  be  co-operatively,  independently 
self-active.  Froebel  did  not  aim  to  make  the  masses 
mere  followers  of  a  few  leaders.  He  believed  in  a 
democracy  in  which  every  man  was  really  free  and  pro- 
gressively strong  and  true.  Such  a  democratic  brother- 
hood he  hoped  to  form  out  of  the  whole  of  the  human 
race  by  universal  conformity  to  the  principles  of  his 
educational  system. 

Froebel  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  weaknesses  of 


Ir 


92 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


humanity  the  lack  of  harmony  between  its  powers  of 
insight  and  attainment.  Men  know  better  than  they 
do,  and  this  necessarily  leads  to  moral  deterioration. 
The  consciousness  of  neglect  to  perform  duty  as  we  con- 
ceive it  produces  the  humiliation  that  leads  to  enfeeble- 
ment  of  character.  It  is  a  serious  mistake  to  give  a 
child  more  power  to  think  without  giving  it  at  the  same 
time  a  correspondingly  increased  power  and  tendency 
to  execute  its  good  decisions.  The  child  should  be  in 
harmony  with  himself.  The  desire  of  accomplishment 
should  follow  naturally  as  the  result  of  the  power  to 
conceive.  This  essential  harmony  between  insight  and 
the  desire  for  attainment  is  greatest  in  young  children. 
That  this  should  be  so  is  not  creditable  to  teachers. 
Greater  power  to  do  should  not  destroy  the  tendency 
to  do.  Froebel  maintained  that  the  desire  to  accom- 
plish will  increase  with  the  ability  to  accomplish  when 
the  pupil  is  trained  in  accordance  with  his  law  of  self- 
activity.  Clearness  of  conception,  definiteness  of  altru- 
istic purpose,  and  success  in  its  achievement  he  regarded 
as  essential  steps  in  universal  human  happiness. 


tl'  ,■ 


"The  only  rest 
Is  labour  for  a  worthy  end." 

**  He  is  crowned  with  all  achieving 
Who  perceives  and  then  performs.'* 

Whenever  the  teacher  gives  the  child  additional 
knowledge  without  at  the  same  time  increasing  its  ex- 
ecutive force  and  tendency,  he  is  helping  to  destroy 
the  harmony  that  should  exist  between  its  receptive, 
reflective,  apd  executive  powers.    Froebel'g  law  of  self- 


■\ 


PROBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


93 


activity  requires  complete  unity  between  the  three 
classes  of  powers. 

Froebel  recognised  the  value  of  play  for  many  rea- 
sons, but  no  other  reason  had  so  much  weight  with  him 
in  leading  him  to  determine  to  make  play  an  organic 
part  of  his  educational  work  as  the  fact  that  in  play 
the  child's  activities  are  put  forth  energetically  in  re- 
sponse to  its  own  personal  decision.  In  play  the  child 
is  perfectly  self-active.  In  play  alone  is  the  child  de- 
veloped as  a  unity,  physically,  intellectually,  and  moral- 
ly. The  whole  being  then  acts  in  harmony  with  motives 
originating  in  the  child's  own  mind,  and  free  play  is 
therefore  a  perfect  type  of  true  self-activity. 

Without  self-activity  the  fullest  cerebral  growth  is 
not  possible,  and  the  co-ordination  of  the  different  de- 
partments of  the  brain  does  not  become  complete.  The 
free  self-activity  of  the  country  child  gives  it,  as  a  rule, 
a  more  energetic  and  better  co-ordinated  brain  than 
the  city  child.  The  country  child  usually  has  much 
greater  freedom  than  the  city  child,  and  a  much  wider 
and  more  stimulating  range  of  objective  life  and  ex- 
periences. The  city  child  is  restrained  by  convention- 
alities, and  limited  by  the  circumstances  of  city  life. 
The  country  child  has  few  conventional  restrictions, 
and  usually  has  the  complete  equipment  of  Nature's 
storehouse  to  lead  him  on  day  by  day  in  a  continuous 
series  of  interesting  investigations  and  experiments. 
This  is  ideal  self -activity.  No  adult  accompanies  it  to 
suggest  the  problems  it  is  to  investigate.  No  intermed- 
dling senior  says,  "  See,  see! "  and  thus  seals  its  eyes 
or  trains  them  to  open  at  the  dictation  of  others.  It 
sees  and  hears  and  examines  the  things  appropriate  to 


h 


■<' 


l<i 


.i; 


I    "! 


([■ 


'ii 


iH| 


li 


94 


FROBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


its  stage  of  development  and  to  its  selfhood.  Its  every 
act  proceeds  from  selfhood,  and  therefore  reacts  on  self- 
hood to  produce  a  greater  selfhood.  This  free  self- 
activity,  under  proper  conditions,  produces  in  the  coun- 
try child  a  stronger,  more  vigorous,  and  better  co-or- 
dinated brain  than  it  could  have  developed  under  less 
favourable  conditions.  If  children  were  compelled  to 
submit  to  the  conditions  and  processes  of  most  schools 
during  the  whole  of  their  waking  hours  for  the  first 
twenty  years  of  their  lives,  their  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  development  would  be  stunted.  The  race  has 
been  saved  by  the  shortness  of  the  school  hours  and  the 
persistent  recuperative  elasticity  of  the  individuality  of 
childhood.  Froebel  would  make  the  school  hours  as 
productive  of  self-determination  as  any  other  part  of 
the  day  by  bringing  into  schools  the  fullest  opportuni- 
ties for  the  interested,  energetic  self-activity  of  each 
child.  He  rejected  the  theory  that  mind  storing  and 
the  training  of  the  reasoning  powers  necessitated  the 
obscuring  of  selfhood,  and  taught  that  self-expression 
is  the  most  effective  way  of  enlarging  and  storing  the 
mind,  of  training  the  reasoning  powers,  and  of  defining 
the  personality. 

Froebel  believed  that  the  true  process  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  life  is  "from  life,  through  life,  to  life."  He 
saw  this  process  in  plant  life,  from  inner  life,  through 
functional  life,  to  perfection  of  the  characteristic  life 
of  the  plant.  In  the  human  being  he  saw  the  corre- 
sponding process  from  inner  life  (individuality  or  self- 
hood), through  the  life  of  self -activity  to  the  perfect  life 
of  a  harmonious  and  balanced  individuality.  He  says: 
^'0   man,   who   roamest   through   garden  and  field, 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


through  meadow  and  grove,  why  dost  thou  close  thy 
mind  to  the  silent  teaching  of  Nature?  Behold  even 
the  weed,  which,  grown  up  amid  hindrances  and  con- 
straint, scarcely  yields  an  indicaHon  of  inner  law!  be- 
hold it  in  Nature  in  field  or  garden,  and  see  how  perfectly 
it  conforms  to  law!  What  a  pure  inner  life  it  shows,  har- 
monious in  all  parts  and  features — a  beautiful  sun,  a 
radiant  star,  it  has  burst  from  the  earth!  Thus,  0  par- 
ents, could  your  children,  on  whom  you  force  in  tender 
years  forms  and  aims  against  iheir  nature,  and  who 
therefore  walk  with  you  in  morbid  and  unnatural  de- 
formity— thus  could  your  children,  too,  unfold  in  beauty 
and  develop  in  all-sided  harmony!  " 

Froebel  demanded  that  the  child  be  self-active  in 
school,  in  order  that  it  might  reveal  itself  fully  in  its 
greatest  powers  to  its  teacher  and,  what  is  of  still  greater 
importance,  to  itself.  Self-revelation  is  one  of  the  most 
important  departments  of  training.  Few,  very  few 
adults  are  conscious  of  their  own  highest  powers. 
Among  the  thousands  of  teachers  who  have  applied  to 
me  for  positions  I  have  not  found  one  who  could  defi- 
nitely answer  the  question,  "  What  is  your  greatest 
power?"  Free  self -activity  is  the  only  way  in  which 
self-revelation  can  be  made  complete. 

Self-activity,  doing  in  response  to  the  child's  own 
originating  mental  activity,  reveals  the  extent  of  the 
<?hild's  knowledge  as  well  as  its  powers,  and  is  the  surest 
way  of  making  knowledge  clear  to  the  child's  own  mind, 
and  of  establishing  the  relationships  of  varied  kinds  of 
knowledge. 

Self-activity  is  the  highest  method  of  developing 
the  executive  power  of  the  hands  in  response  to  the  di- 


1*1 

1 


m 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


rection  of  the  child's  mind.  Responsive  activity  alone 
develops  the  motor  hrain  to  a  limited  extent;  but  such 
activity  does  not  secure  the  essential  co-ordination  be- 
tween the  sensor  and  the  motor  brain.  It  is  very  impor- 
tant to  have  a  well-developed  sensor  brain  and  a  well- 
developed  motor  brain,  but  the  perfect  co-ordination 
of  the  sensor  with  the  motor  brain  is  the  most  important 
element  in  brain  development.  The  perfectly  trained 
individual  is  the  one  who  has  physical  organs  trained 
to  their  fullest  limit  in  power  and  skill  to  respond  defi- 
nitely and  promptly  to  the  suggestions  of  a  well-devel- 
oped brain  in  which  the  sensor  and  motor  elements  are 
balanced  and  perfectly  co-ordinated.  No  other  process 
br.t  self-activity  can  produce  such  mental  and  physical 
development  and  co-ordination,  and  make  each  indi- 
vidual self-directing  in  originating  motive  and  in  execu- 
tive effort. 

A  very  distinct  advantage  of  education  by  self-activ- 
ity is  the  strengthening  of  the  power  of  self-education. 
The  lack  of  energetic  tendency  toward  persistent  self- 
education  after  the  period  of  school  life  has  passed  is 
the  most  manifest  weakness  in  the  influence  of  educa- 
tional forces.  That  this  weakness  exists  should  not 
cause  surprise.  It  would  be  surprising  if  any  other  re- 
sult were  produced  by  a  system  of  education  that  makes 
the  pupil  dependent  on  the  teacher  for  the  stimulus  to 
study — usually  a  coercive  stimulus — and  fails  to  de- 
velop the  power  of  choice  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  in 
regard  to  certain  departments  of  study.  If  a  boy's  self- 
hood has  not  been  trained  to  act  with  spontaneity  in  re- 
gard to  study  before  he  leaves  school,  it  is  unreasonable 
to  expect  it  to  act  with  much  energy  when  school  life 


PROEBEL'S  PUKDAMEKTAL  PROCESS. 


97 


is  over.  It  would  be  very  remarkable  if  an  internal 
stimulus  did  control  him  when  his  teacher  had  de- 
liberately trained  him  through  his  formative  years  to 
respond  only  to  external  stimulus.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
two  per  cent  of  all  who  pass  through  the  public  schools 
persistently  and  systematically  follow  any  definite  course 
of  study  after  they  leave  school.  Only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  professional  men  regularly  study  the  new  de- 
velopments even  in  connection  with  their  own  profes- 
sion. The  schools  prevent  the  development  of  the  habit 
of  independent  study  by  failing  to  make  provision  for 
the  exercise  of  self-activity  in  study  during  the  forma- 
tive years  of  childhood.  Pupils  who  throughout  their 
school  life  study  only  in  response  to  the  dictation  or 
compulsion  of  their  teachers  naturally  stop  studying 
when  they  leave  school.  Their  own  motive  power  of 
self-acting  interest  has  not  been  developed,  and  they 
have  lost  the  external  power  that  impelled  them  to 
study. 

A  few  quotations  from  Froebel's  writings  will  help 
to  make  clear  his  own  conception  of  the  law  of  self-ac- 
tivity and  its  paramount  importance  as  a  fundamental 
principle  in  educational  practice. 

He  wrote  with  some  bitterness  of  the  opposition  of 
the  German  Government  to  his  system  because  it  tend- 
ed to  give  men  new  conceptions  of  freedom: 

"  As  a  state  machine  I  should  have  been  engaged  in 
cutting  out  and  modelling  other  state  machines.  But  I 
— I  only  wanted  to  train  up  free,  thinking,  independent 


men. 


» 


"In  order,  therefore,  to  impart  true,  genuine  firm- 
ness to  the  natural  will  activity  of  the  boy,  all  the  ac- 


,i!'l 


98 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


r 


iiii 


tivities  of  the  boy — his  entire  will — should  proceed  from 
and  have  reference  to  the  development,  cultivation,  and 
representation  of  the  internaV* 

"  As  the  plant  grows  through  its  own  vital  power,  so 
also  must  human  power  become  great  through  its  own 
exercise  and  effort." 

"  Man  is  developed  and  cultured  toward  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  destiny  and  mission,  and  is  to  be  valued 
even  in  boyhood,  not  only  by  what  he  receives  and  ab- 
sorbs from  without,  but  much  more  by  what  he  puts  out 
and  unfolds  from  himself.  Experience,  and  history  too, 
teach  that  men  truly  and  effectively  promote  human 
welfare  much  more  by  what  they  put  forth  from  them- 
selves than  by  what  they  have  acquired.  Every  one 
knows  that  those  who  truly  teach  gain  steadily  in 
knowledge  and  insight;  similarly,  every  one  knows,  for 
Nature  herself  teaches  this,  that  the  use  of  a  force  en- 
hances and  intensifies  the  force.  Again,  to  learn  a 
thing  in  life  and  through  doing  is  much  more  develop- 
ing, cultivating,  and  strengthening  than  to  learn  it 
merely  through  the  verbal  communication  of  ideas." 

"  The  purpose  of  teaching  and  instruction  is  to 
bring  out  of  man  rather  than  to  put  more  and  more 
into  him;  for  that  which  we  can  get  into  man  we  already 
know  and  possess  as  the  property  of  mankind,  and  every 
one,  simply  because  he  is  a  human  being,  will  unfold  and 
develop  it  out  of  himself  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
mankind.  On  the  other  hand,  what  yet  is  to  come 
out  of  mankind,  what  human  nature  is  yet  to  develop, 
that  we  do  not  yet  know — that  is  not  yet  the  property 
of  mankind;  and  still,  human  nature,  like  the  Spirit  of 
God,  is  ever  unfolding  its  inner  essence,'' 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


dd 


tc 


ij 


However  clearly  this  might  and  should  appear 
from  the  ohservation  of  our  own  and  all  other  life,  even 
the  best  among  us,  like  plants  near  a  calcareous  spring, 
are  so  incrusted  with  extraneous  prejudices  and  opin- 
ions that  only  with  the  greatest  effort  and  self-con- 
straint we  give  even  limited  heed  to  the  better  view. 
Let  us  confess  at  least  that  when,  with  the  best  inten- 
tions toward  our  children,  we  speak  of  their  develop- 
ment and  education,  we  should  rather  say  envelopment 
and  iwducation;  that  we  should  not  even  speak  of  cul- 
ture, which  implies  the  development  of  the  mind,  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  rather  of  stamping  and  moulding,  how- 
ever proudly  we  may  claim  to  have  passed  beyond  these 
mind-killing  practices." 

In  speaking  of  one  of  the  occupations  used  in  the 
kindergarten,  he  said:  "It  gives  the  boy  easily  and 
spontaneously,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  imperceptibly, 
precise,  clear,  and  many-sided  results  due  to  his  own 
creative  power." 

"We  find  the  human  being,  even  at  the  earliest 
stages  of  boyhood,  fitted  for  the  highest  and  most  im- 
portant concern  of  mankind,  for  the  fulfilment  of  his 
destiny  and  mission,  which  is  the  representation  of  the 
divine  nature  within  him.  To  secure  for  this  ability 
skill  and  directness,  to  lift  it  into  full  consciousness, 
and  to  exalt  it  into  a  life  of  creative  freedom  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  subsequent  life  of  man  in  successive  stages 
of  development  and  cultivation." 

"  Training  and  instruction  should  rest  on  the  foun- 
dation from  which  proceed  all  genuine  knowledge  and 
all  genuine  attainments:  on  life  itself  and  on  creative 
effort,  on  the  union  and  interdependejjce  of  doing  and 
8 


■lllft^ 


if 


Pi 


t.J!, 


100 


FBOBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


V. 


II   ■  i 


|j  i'M' 


i  .  I 


^li'l!' 


thinking,  representation  and  knowledge,  art  and  science. 
They  should  be  based  on  the  pupiFs  personal  efforts  in 
work  and  expression,  making  these,  again>  the  founda- 
tion of  all  genuine  knowledge  and  culture." 

''To  stir  up,  to  animate,  to  awaken,  and  to 
strengthen  the  pleasure  and  power  of  the  human  being 
to  labour  uninterruptedly  at  his  own  education,  has  be- 
come and  always  remained  the  fundamental  principle 
and  aim  of  my  educational  work." 

"The  time  has  now  arrived  when  men  are  coming 
to  the  consciousness  of  their  own  being  and  of  the  law 
which  rules  them,  and  according  to  which  they  are  ac- 
tive, therefore  the  earliest  childhood  must  be  guided 
according  to  this  law,  and  at  first  in  the  activity  of  play. 
Consciousness  of  the  law  is  only  prepared  for  by  action 
and  the  application  of  the  law.  Unconsciousness  is 
raised  to  consciousness  chiefly  hy  action." 

"  The  will  is  strengthened  only  by  voluntary  activ- 
ity. By  striving  to  create  and  produce  the  beautiful  and 
good  the  feelings  are  developed,  and  by  all  lawful, 
thoughtful,  free  activity  the  mind  is  cultivated.  But 
such  activity  sets  aside  all  extraneous  education,  and 
that  outside  indoctrinating  that  is  not  in  unison  either 
with  the  nature  of  the  child  or  with  his  actual  state  of 
development,  and  it  puts  self-education  and  self-indoc- 
trinating in  their  place." 

"  Freedom  can  not  be  bestowed  upon  us.  God  him- 
self can  not  bestow  it  upon  us,  since  it  must  be  the 
product  of  our  moral  and  intellectual  unfettering,  which 
it  is  possible  to  attain  only  by  self -activity." 

Froebel  based  all  real  development  on  the  revelation 
of  the  inner  in  the  outer.    To  him  the  universal  law  of 

\ 


FROBBBL'S  FUNDAMBXTAL  PROCBSS. 


101 


human  growth  consciously  toward  perfection  was:  Inner 
growth  is  the  only  real  growth,  the  internal  dominates 
the  external,  and  inner  growth  springs  from  the  reflex 
action  of  the  inner  on  the  outer,  and  not  from  the  direct 
action  of  the  outer  on  the  inner.  The  inner  power 
increases  by  its  own  activity.  Education  was  to  him 
a  unity  in  every  respect,  and  therefore  he  insisted  that 
increase  in  knowledge  should  be  accompanied  with  in- 
crease of  power  of  the  inner  life,  of  originative  as  well 
as  executive  power.  His  doing  was  always  the  result  of 
seeifig,  and  his  seeing  was  made  clearer  through  doing. 

He  believed  that  the  divinity  in  the  child — its  in- 
dividuality, its  distinctive  characteristic,  its  originality, 
its  uelfhood — is  the  element  of  power  that  should  be 
most  definitely  trained,  because  it  is  the  element  of  most 
importance  to  the  child  and  to  the  race.  On  its  devel- 
opment rested  all  his  hope  for  the  child  itself,  and  for 
its  uplifting  influence  on  its  fellow-men.  Therefore  he 
made  its  training  the  central  element  in  his  system. 
Self-activity  as  a  law  means  the  definite  training  of  the 
individuality,  the  originality,  the  distinctive  character- 
istics, the  selfhood,  by  calling  it  into  energetic  activ- 
ity in  a  natural  way  through  spontaneity  of  interest. 

By  making  the  training  of  selfhood  the  central  ele- 
ment in  educational  effort  he  had  no  intention  to  neg- 
lect the  training  of  the  receptive  and  reflective  powers 
and  the  communication  of  wide  and  thorough  knowl- 
edge. He  believed  that  the  education  of  the  child 
should  be  carried  on  as  a  unity,  and  that  unless  the 
highest  human  power  was  definitely  trained  no  other 
power  could  be  developed  to  its  fullest  limit,  nor  could 
the  mind  be  properly  stored  with  knowledge.     The 


m 


:'fl 


M. 


I'  111 


102 


FROBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


highest  act  in  the  educational  sequence  includes  the 
operation  of  all  related,  subordinate  activity.     He  ob- 
jected to  evei7  system  that  magnified  knowledge  at  the 
expense  of  the  child,  and  his  whole  life  was  a  protest 
against  the  ''stamping  and  moulding''  processes  of 
teachers,  who  failed  to  recognise  the  sacredness  of  the 
child's  individuality.    What  he  valued  was  not  power, 
but  creative  power.    He  aimed  to  make  something  bet- 
ter of  his  pupils  than  mere  "  machines,"  and,  as  he  so 
well  said,  to  make  them  "free,  thinking,  independent 
men,"  always  keeping  in  mind  the  germ  thought  that 
"  the  fulfilment  of  man's  destiny  is  the  representation 
of  the  divine  nature  within  him."    This  ideal  made 
creative   freedom   a   logical   conception.     Without   it 
creative  freedom  would  lose  its  educational  value;  the 
suggestion  of  creative  power  to  human  beings  would 
be  absurd,  and  spontaneity  might  lead  to  anarchy  in- 
stead of  harmonious  growth  toward  truth,  justice,  and 
perfect  freedom.     He  knew  that  harmonious  growth 
did  not  require  the  sacrifice  of  individuality.    His  con- 
ception of  unity  was  not  homogeneity,  but  an  organic 
unity  of  dissimilar  elements  or  forces.    His  theory  was 
unity  from  diversity,  and  his  aim  the  reconciliation  of 
opposites.    The  source  of  unity  and  of  reconciliation  was 
the  vital  power  of  the  divine  essence  in  each  individual. 
The  more  completely  he  could  develop  this  vital  power 
of  selfhood,  the  more  quickly  he  expected  to  unite  the 
universal  brotherhood  of  man  in  a  progressive  advance. 
The  apparent  contradiction  between  individualism  and 
social   unity   vanishes   as   individuals   rise   to    higher 
ground  and  broader  vision — aa  their  selfhood  becomes 
more  fully  developed.  .i 


FBOBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


103 


The  greatest  modern  educational  philosophers  of 
England  and  America  are  in  harmony  with  Froebel  in 
regard  to  self-activity  as  the  basis  of  growth  and  real 
progress. 

Sir  William  Hamilton  says:  "  The  primary  principle 
of  education  is  the  determination  of  the  pupil  to  self- 
nctivityy  and  that  teacher  who  fully  recognises  the  ac- 
tive agency  of  the  pupil's  mind  in  acquiring  knowledge 
and  experience  and  in  applying  them  to  the  affairs  of 
everyday  life,  will  be  the  most  useful  to  his  pupils. 
In  the  training  of  youthful  minds  we  regard  formation 
as  of  more  importance  than  information,  the  manner 
in  which  work  is  done  as  of  greater  consequence  than 
the  matter  used  in  the  work.  All  true  education  is 
growth,  and  what  we  grow  to  be  concerns  us  more  than 
what  we  live  to  know." 

Herbert  Spencer,  who  is  in  his  philosophy  often 
strikingly  like  Froebel,  says:  "  In  education  the  process 
of  self-development  should  be  encouraged  to  the  fullest 
extent.  Children  should  be  led  to  make  their  own  inves- 
tigations and  to  draw  their  own  inferences.  They  should 
be  told  as  little  as  possible,  and  induced  to  discover  as 
much  as  possible.  Humanity  has  progressed  solely  by 
self -instruction." 

H.  Courthope  Bowen  writes:  "The  answer  comes 
from  every  part  of  creation  with  ever-increasing  clear- 
ness and  emphasis — development  is  produced  by  exercise 
of  function,  use  of  faculty.  ...  To  produce  develop- 
ment most  truly  and  effectively  the  exercise  must  arise 
from  and  be  sustained  by  the  thing's  own  activity 
— ^its  own  natural  powers,  and  all  of  them  (as  far  aa 
these  aye  ia  any  sense  connected  witfc  the  activity  pro- 


.»  ».v*.  . 


**  »      <*  ^  t¥-^~-.m>.. 


^!* 


f 


ti 


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II 

iil':' 


104 


FBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


posed)  should  be  awakened  and  become  naturally  ac- 
tive." 

Prof.  John  Dewey  summarizes  the  basal  principle  of 
all  educational  method  as  follows:  "  The  fundamental 
principle  is  that  the  child  is  always  a  being  with  activ- 
ities of  its  own,  which  are  present  and  urgent  and  do  not 
require  to  be  "  induced,"  "  drawn  out,"  or  "  devel- 
oped," etc.;  that  the  work  of  the  educator,  whether 
parent  or  teacher,  consists  solely  in  ascertaining,  and  in 
connecting  with,  these  activities,  furnishing  them  appro- 
priate opportunities  and  conditions." 

The  law  of  self-activity  is  now  recognised  as  funda- 
mental by  all  educational  leaders.  How  can  it  be  made 
the  basis  of  the  general  work  of  the  school?  The  philo- 
sophical recognition  of  the  law  will  do  little  good  un- 
less it  is  applied.  The  pupil  may  be  made  receptive, 
reflective,  or  executive  by  the  life  he  is  compelled  to 
lead  in  school.  If  he  is  made  receptive  and  reflective 
only,  his  natural  motor  character  has  been  weakened. 
There  is  a  clearly  defined  tendency  in  children  to  execute 
what  they  conceive.  Expression  is  the  natural  result  of 
impression,  and  the  weakening  of  the  character  power 
of  the  race  results  from  the  destruction  of  spontaneity 
in  the  energetic  accomplishment  of  decisions  and  pur- 
poses. 

Teachers  should  test  every  method  and  school  pro- 
cess which  they  practise  by  the  attitude  of  the  pupil's 
selfhood  in  relation  to  it.  Is  the  pupil's  selfhood  passive 
or  active?  Is  his  activity  responsive  to  the  suggestion 
or  order  of  another,  or  is  it  the  effort  to  accomplish  a 
purpose  originating  with  himself?  Does  it  reealt  from 
outef  Rtimulation  of  ipner  motive?    If  action  )re8u}t§ 


m 


ac- 


PROBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS.         106 

from  outer  stimulation,  what  is  the  nature  of  the  in- 
ducement to  activity?  Is  it  mandatory  or  reasonable? 
Does  the  external  influence  coerce  the  pupil  or  simply 
guide  him?  Does  it  develop  interest  or  weaken  it?  Is 
it  a  temporary  motive  which  logically  tends  to  make 
the  pupil  self-active  and  gradually  gives  place  to  inner 
motives  and  interest  that  continue  the  activity  spon- 
taneously, or  does  it  leave  the  pupil  inert  when  the 
external  stimulus  is  removed?  Can  activity  induced 
by  commands,  or  by  the  personal  power,  will,  magnet- 
ism, or  other  influence  of  the  teacher  or  parent,  be  made 
as  energetic  and  as  definitely  productive  as  true  self- 
activity,  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  brain,  both  in  its  motor  and  its  sensor 
departments,  in  the  co-ordination  of  these  departments 
of  the  brain,  or  in  defining  the  individuality  of  the 
child? 

If  these  questions  are  asked  by  teachers  in  regard 
to  the  methods  of  most  schoolrooms  to-day,  candid 
answers  will  convince  them  that  the  principle  of  self- 
activity  has  yet  received  but  slight  recognition.  It 
is  only  by  thus  honestly  testing  their  own  work  that 
teachers  can  be  aroused  to  the  energetic  mental  condi- 
tion that  leads  to  reform  and  discovery.  In  revealing 
the  weakness  or  evil  of  present  methods,  and  in  discov- 
ering the  new  and  better  way,  the  central  law  of  teach- 
ers should  be  self-activity. 

In  all  efforts  to  reform  the  methods  practised  in 
schools  it  is  well  to  study  the  processes  by  which  the 
child  develops  before  it  goes  to  school.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  important  departments  of  child  study.  One 
defiwte  result  of  such  study  must  be  the  dear  recogni- 


M  ^\''i 


I! 


K 


(^A 


i 

I 


J 


106 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tion  of  the  natural  ability  of  the  child  to  discover  its 
own  problems.  Whatever  may  be  its  condition  in  life, 
whether  its  environment  be  the  narrow  limitations  of 
city  life,  or  the  full  and  stimulating  richness  of  Nature 
in  flower,  tree,  bird,  or  insect  life,  or  in  the  wealth  of 
inanimate  material,  the  child,  if  it  be  left  to  itself,  finds 
problems  for  the  occupation  of  its  mind  and  hands  inex- 
haustible in  number  and  unfailing  in  interest.  In  the 
discovery  and  solution  of  these  problems  lies  the  true 
source  of  the  child's  mental  growth.  No  other  prob- 
lems aid  in  the  development  of  its  mind  so  completely 
as  those  discovered  by  itself. 

The  power  to  discover  new  problems  is  much  higher 
than  the  power  to  solve  them.  Children  are  naturally 
problem  finders,  the  schools  make  them  problem  solvers. 
Before  the  child  goes  to  school,  unless  it  is  dwarfed 
by  the  blighting  interference  of  unwise  guides,  it  finds 
its  own  problems.  It  lives  in  a  paradise  of  wonders 
and  revelations.  If  brought  up  in  the  country,  where 
it  is  surrounded  by  myriad  forms  of  living,  growing 
things  (birds,  bees,  beetles,  worms,  trees,  and  flowers), 
and  where  it  has  plenty  of  material  (water,  sand,  stones, 
and  sticks)  with  which  to  develop  its  building,  con- 
structive, and  transforming  instincts,  it  is  occupied  dur- 
ing all  its  working  hours  in  making  new  discoveries  or 
in  performing  new  experiments.  It  needs  no  guide  to 
direct  it  to  the  new  revelations  or  to  instruct  it  in  mak- 
ing its  experiments.  The  interference  of  adults  de- 
stroys the  central  element  of  life  both  in  the  discovery 
and  the  operation. 

A  very  clear  distinction  should  be  made  between 
the  aid  given  to  children  in  the  solution  of  problems 


tf^ii 


I,. 


FROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


107 


discovered  by  themselves  and  help  given  in  the  discov- 
ery 6f  problems.  Aid  in  solution  may  be  perfectly 
proper,  because  the  child's  desire  to  do  at  first  is  usually 
in  advance  of  its  power  of  attainment,  and  failure  to  ac- 
complish will  lead  to  discouragement  and  inertness  of 
character.  Help  in  finding  problems  makes  the  child 
dependent  upon  others  for  the  perceiving  power  in 
seeing  new  conditions,  upon  which  independent  origina- 
tive power  is  based. 

Originative  power  is  more  important  than  operative 
power,  because  it  should  be  the  motive  to  stimulate 
operative  power  to  action.  Without  originative  motive 
pjwer  operative  power  is  purely  mechanical.  Both 
powers  should  be  given  opportunities  for  their  fullest 
development.  The  one  is  the  complement  of  the  other. 
Neither  can  reach  its  most  complete  development  un- 
less the  other  progressively  develops  with  it.  Opera- 
tive power  should  be  the  expression  of  the  originative 
power  of  the  individual  who  operates,  and  not  merely 
the  agency  for  carrying  out  the  aims  or  plans  of  others. 
The  executive  power  increases  in  definiteness  most 
naturally  through  the  accomplishment  of  original  pur- 
poses and  plans.  Man  should  be  a  creative  being.  Crea- 
tive power  grows  as  all  other  powers  grow — ^by  free  use. 
Interference  by  adults  prevents  the  higher  development 
of  the  child  most  completely  when  it  provides  a  substi- 
tute for  its  creative  power,  the  originating  or  discov- 
ering element  in  the  child's  own  nature.  To  arrest  the 
complete  development  of  the  power  of  independent 
problem  recognition  weakens  the  child  at  the  centre  of 
its  intellectual  nature  by  checking  its  natural  tendency 
to  self -activity. 


n: 


( 


108 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


;Slr 


M 


iii 


If.' 


The  child  comes  to  school  from  its  sphere  of  inde- 
pendence in  probi  m  finding,  and  is  at  once  set  to  work 
at  problem  solving  alone.  In  every  subject  the  teacher 
brings  the  questions  and  assigns  the  lessons.  The  essen- 
tial unity  between  insight  and  accomplishment,  between 
discovery  and  achievement,  between  originating  and 
operating,  between  self-active  interest  and  executive 
power,  between  seeing  and  doing,  between  problem  rec- 
ognition and  problem  explanation,  is  destroyed.  The 
teacher  does  the  important  part  of  the  work.  The  vital 
and  interest-producing  part  of  the  process  of  learning 
is  not  performed  by  the  child,  and  so  the  child's  inter- 
est is  inevitably  v/eakened.  Day  by  day  it  becomes  less 
interested,  less  positive,  and  more  negative.  Its  nature 
adapts  itself  to  its  new  conditions.  Its  function  in 
school  is  to  solve  problems  and  answer  questions,  and  it 
soon  learns  to  wait  for  its  problems  and  questions. 

By  such  teaching  the  child  is  made  dependent  on  the 
teacher  in  the  most  essential  department  of  its  intel- 
lectual power.  The  highest  success  in  life  can  not  be 
achieved  by  solving  the  problems  of  life  that  are  forced 
upon  us  by  circumstances.  Man  should  be  more  than  a 
conqueror  of  conditions  that  thrust  themselves  in  his 
pathway.  He  should  be  able  to  choose  his  pathway. 
He  should  have  power  to  see  new  pathways  that  lead 
to  higher  life  work.  The  men  who  have  lifted  their 
fellow-men  to  better  conditions,  either  physically,  intel- 
lectually, or  morally,  have  been  those  who  saw  new 
problems  of  life  and  helped  to  find  their  solution.  Few 
great  discoveries  have  been  the  result  of  accidents. 
They  have  been  made  by  men  who  had  power  to  see 
n^w  relationships  between  scientific  forces  already  un- 


FEOBBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


109 


derstood  or  to  recognise  unexplained  problems  as  evi- 
dences of  yet  unknown  forces.  Every  man  should  be 
a  discoverer  within  his  own  sphere.  Every  man  would 
possess  independent  power  of  discovery  if  his  natural 
wonder  power  had  been  developed  properly.  It  is  not 
possible  to  give  all  men  equal  power  to  discover  new 
forces  or  new  relationships.  As  the  power  to  see  new 
problems  is  the  highest  intellectual  power,  it  admits  of 
a  wider  range  of  development  than  any  other  intellec- 
tual power,  and  there  must  naturally  be  great  diversity 
between  its  highest  and  lowest  degrees  of  development. 
But  every  degree  of  this  natural  power  of  problem  dis- 
covery is  capable  of  culture,  and  the  source  of  this 
culture  is  opportunity  for  free  self-activity. 

The  natural  "  wonder  power "  of  childhood  should 
continue  through  life  to  be  the  pioneer  element  in  char- 
acter, looking  ever  ahead,  around,  and  upward  for  new 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  worlds,  to  compre- 
hend and  to  conquer.  The  curiosity  shown  by  the  child 
in  its  effort  to  understand  the  wonders  of  the  material 
world  and  its  relationship  toward  it  is  its  leading  in- 
tellectual power.  It  was  intended  to  increase  in  strength 
and  insight  during  the  child's  whole  life.  The  very 
power  that  interests  the  child  in  the  mysteries  of  the 
natural  world  around  it,  organic  and  inorganic,  should 
in  later  years  make  the  mind  reach  out  aggressively  in 
search  of  the  subtler  problems  of  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual life.  We  are  in  touch  with  an  infinite  number 
of  unsolved  intellectual  and  spiritual  problems  of  which 
we  are  totally  unconscious.  We  might  recognise  them 
and  aid  in  their  solution,  and  thereby  aid  in  the  con- 
scious progress  of  the  race  toward  tho  ^iyine,  if  our 


flp 


(M* 


110 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


wonder  power  had  been  developed  fully.  It  usually  dies 
out  from  lack  of  opportunity  for  exercise. 

Mr.  McChoakumchild  said:  "Bring  to  me  yonder 
child  just  able  to  walk  and  I  will  engage  that  it  will 
never  wonder."  Few  deliberately  set  themselves  the 
melancholy  task  of  the  destruction  of  wonder  power, 
as  did  Gradgrind  and  McChoakumchild;  but  the  dwarf- 
ing of  the  power  goes  on  in  most  homes  and  schools,  and 
the  race  in  consequence  creeps  laboriously  in  the  shad- 
ow, instead  of  soaring  in  ever-brightening  light.  The 
power  to  see  new  problems  should  be  cultivated  more 
carefully  than  any  other  power,  because  it  discovers  the 
most  productive  fields  for  the  operation  of  all  man's 
other  powers.  True  self-activity  is  the  only  educational 
process  that  can  fully  develop  this  power. 

In  arithmetic  the  pupils  are  usually  asked  to  solve 
problems  from  books  or  those  collected  or  prepared  by 
their  teachers.  It  is  a  much  more  developing  exercise 
to  allow  pupils  to  prepare  problems  than  to  confine  their 
attention  to  the  solution  of  problems.  Problem  mak- 
ing affords  wider  scope  for  originality  and  leads  to  a 
more  intimate  conception  of  mathematical  relationships, 
numerical  combinations,  and  arithmetical  processes  than 
problem  solution.  The  making  of  a  problem  involves 
the  logical  principles  underlying  its  solution.  Pupils 
are  more  interested  in  discovering  new  problems  than 
in  solving  those  already  made.  They  are  more  inter- 
ested in  those  made  by  their  fellow-pupils  than  in  those 
prepared  by  their  teachers  or  found  in  text-books. 

In  Euclid,  physics,  and  botany  there  is  a  wide  field 
for  the  development  of  the  problem-finding  habit  and 
the  cultivf^tion  of  wonder  power. 


i  i^t 


ii'      . 


.fr*  f  ji»--- 


..,«..-*%, 


r'l 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


Ill 


In  history  it  awakens  interest  and  promotes  the  fix- 
ing of  facts  in  their  relationships  in  the  memory,  to  as- 
sign a  portion  of  the  subject  to  be  studied  with  a  view 
to  the  discovery  of  the  most  important  events  of  the 
period;  making  it  the  duty  of  each  pupil  to  decide  what 
they  are,  and  to  prepare  a  series  of  questions  to  be 
answered  by  the  rest  of  the  class.  In  this  way  the 
searching  interest  in  knowledge  is  kept  alive  and  devel- 
oped, each  pupil  has  his  conception  of  historical  values 
broadened  and  defined,  and  the  history  is  very  thorough- 
ly considered  and  discussed.  The  pupil  is  not  a  mere 
gatherer  of  facts  to  answer  questions  assigned  by  the 
teacher  or  to  be  given  at  examinations.  He  is  not  a 
passive  student  following  along  paths  marked  out  by 
his  teacher;  he  is  an  independent  searcher  viewing  his- 
torical questions  from  his  own  standpoint.  Better  than 
all  else,  he  is  being  trained  to  study  history  intelli- 
gently after  he  leaves  school.  This  is  really  the  chief 
purpose  of  teaching  history.  Dr.  Arnold  said  the  duty 
of  the  teacher  in  teaching  history  is  to  show  "  that  his- 
tory contains  gold,  and  to  train  the  pupils  to  dig  for  it." 
All  pupils  can  not  be  trained  to  dig  for  historical  gold 
in  original  sources,  but  they  may  be  trained  to  dig  in  all 
available  sources. 

When  geography  is  studied,  not  as  a  means  of  fixing 
the  names  and  positions  of  places  in  the  memory,  but  to 
learn  from  the  earth  the  story  of  its  own  evolution,  and 
its  infiuence  on  the  development  of  man,  and  to  under- 
stand its  relationship  to  the  heavenly  bodies  around 
it,  no  subject  affords  better  opportunities  for  the  culture 
of  the  questioning  attitude  of  the  mind.  Even  in  the 
study  of  literature  the  mind  of  the  child  should  be  kept 


ii 


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i-i 


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i? 


,i!li 


« 


i«!"^ 


I 

IP 


im 


111: 


<(, 


I'lL 

^'llll  ^'' 

Pjllii 

i'li 
III 

'i 

Mill 
i 


I  i> 


i. 


I;     !i 


112 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


independently  aggressive  in  the  recognition  of  the 
beauty  and  the  profundity  of  the  language  and  thought. 

The  questioning,  wonder  spirit  is  natural  to  tha 
child,  and,  if  not  destroyed  positively  and  negatively 
by  the  schools,  it  should  increase  in  power  and  remain 
a  dominant  influence  in  the  mental  growth  of  the  man. 
Given  full  opportunity  for  exercise  in  regard  to  objectn 
and  subjects  appropriate  to  the  stage  of  development 
of  the  pupil,  it  will  grow  rapidly  in  intensity,  power,  and 
range;  and  led  by  it  the  man  should  have  as  much  en- 
joyment in  dealing  with  new  revelations  in  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  worlds  as  the  child  has  in  solving 
the  wonder  problems  of  the  material  world. 

It  is  quite  true  that  problem  making  and  question- 
ing by  pupils  may  deteriorate  into  formalism.  All 
subjects  and  processes,  however  great,  degenerate  in 
the  hands  of  mechanical  teachers.  This  fact  does  not 
prove  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  subjects  or  the  pro- 
cesses. 

One  of  the  fundamental  reforms  most  needed  in 
school  work  is  the  adaptation  of  the  environment  of  the 
child  in  school  to  its  stage  of  evolution,  so  that  it  may 
stimulate  the  child's  wonder  power  and  continue  its 
experience  as  a  discoverer  of  problems,  making  conscious 
a  higher  form  of  its  development  before  going  to  school. 
It  is  sometimes  said  that  "  the  duty  of  the  teacher  is  to 
set  the  child  going."  The  child  goes  before  it  is  sent  to 
school,  too  often  faster  than  afterward.  The  teacher's 
duty  is  to  keep  him  going  as  a  discoverer  and  solver  of 
problems  and  not  as  a  solver  only. 

The  race  should  be  definitely  progressive,  and  each 
individual    should   be    independently    self-progressive. 


i  i 


FBOEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


113 


There  must  always  be  leaders — freer,  mightier  men  and 
women  who  step  out  and  up  in  advance  of  their  slower 
fellows,  but  all  the  race  should  be  free  and  should  in- 
crease in  might.  All  can  not  advance  at  the  same  rate, 
but  each  one  should  advance  by  individual  effort.  In- 
dividual effort  does  not  prevent  our  taking  the  most 
complete  advantage  of  the  discoveries  and  accumulated 
knowledge  of  others.  Every  child  has  for  its  inheritance 
the  stored  knowledge  and  the  developed  sovereignty 
acquired  by  man  over  Nature  during  all  the  centuries 
before  its  birth,  but  each  man  and  woman  should  in- 
crease the  store  and  extend  the  sovereignty. 

One  of  Froebel's  essential  principles  of  true  self-ac- 
tivity is,  that  the  activity  must  not  degenerate  into  me- 
chanical drudgery.  By  creative  productivity  he  hoped 
to  make  children  and  grown  people  happy  at  work. 
Work  should  never  be  slavery.  In  the  ideal  society  as 
he  saw  it,  when  humanity  becomes  truly  a  unity  work 
will  be  joyous,  productive  activity.  He  would  prepare 
for  this  condition  by  making  children  love  work,  which 
to  them  he  made  the  external  manifestation  of  the 
inner,  creative  life.  To  make  a  child  conscious  of  its 
own  original  power  is  an  important  step  in  its  religious 
evolution.  Creative  self-activity  is  a  religious  exercise, 
because  it  lays  the  foundation  for  the  clear  conscious- 
ness of  unity  with  God  by  revealing  to  the  child  the 
fact  that  it  possesses,  in  however  small  a  degree,  one  of 
his  attributes. 

It  is  well  to  point  out  that  Froebel  did  not  intend 
that  free  self -activity  should  mean  unrestricted  liberty. 
Freedom  within  law  he  regarded  as  the  only  true  free- 
dom.   The  gifts,  occupations,  and  even  the  games  in  the 


M 


■II 


!  ^* 


I  i 
i 


If 


U 


I 


rtlii  I 


114 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


kindergarten  were  intended  to  foreshadow  and  reveal 
the  great  truth,  that  even  creativity  must  be  subject  to 
definite  law. 

Self-activity  should  be  one  of  the  most  important 
words  in  a  teacher's  vocabulary.  It  should  be  written 
on  the  top  of  every  page  of  his  notebook  and  printed 
in  letters  of  gold  on  the  wall  of  the  schoolroom  toward 
which  he  looks,  to  keep  him  in  remembrance  of  its 
value  and  of  his  tendency  to  overshadow  his  pupils. 
Nearly  three  hundred  years  ago  Comenius  announced 
as  one  of  the  great  aims  of  educational  progress:  "  To 
search  out  and  discover  a  rule  in  accordance  with  which 
teachers  teach  less  and  learners  learn  more."  We  are 
yet  striving  toward  the  ideal  of  Comenius. 

Self-expression  is  infinitely  more  productive  both  in 
acquiring  knowledge  and  in  developing  power  than  ex- 
pression. Accumulation,  expression,  self-expression,  are 
three  advancing  stages  of  educational  power.  They 
form  a  progressive  sequence.  The  highest  stage  in- 
cludes the  powers  of  the  other  two  developed  to  a 
higher  degree  of  potency  as  a  means  of  cultivating 
power  or  acquiring  knowledge.  "What  man  tries  to 
represent  or  do  he  begins  to  understand."  "  If  any 
man  will  do  his  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 
Many  emotions,  sentiments,  and  thoughts  vanish  from 
our  lives  "  for  lack  of  expression."  The  effort  of  self- 
expression  defines  the  emotions,  sentiments,  or 
thoughts,  and  language  forms  an  objective  representa- 
tion or  body  for  them.  The  inner  life  is  co-ordinated 
and  classified,  emotion  and  thought  are  related,  and 
propulsive  power  is  developed  by  the  process  of  con- 
scious self-expression  in  any  form — ^language,  music. 


in- 


FROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


115 


drawing,  modelling,  or  construction.  The  aroused 
inner  life  is  worse  than  wasted  if  it  finds  no  means  for 
expressing  itself  in  outward  form.  It  leaves  in  the 
mind  a  record  for  indistinctness  and  confusion  and  a 
habit  of  inertness,  of  conceiving  without  bringing 
forth,  of  planning  without  producing. 

Expression  in  which  there  is  no  selfhood  leads  to 
enfeeblement  of  character.  The  more  fully  expression 
is  self-revelation  the  more  it  develops  selfhood  and  the 
more  it  defines  and  classifies  knowledge. 

There  are  two  clearly  defined  though  related  stages 
in  self-expression:  the  enrichment  and  enlargement  of 
the  self  and  its  representation.  The  inner  should  be 
increased  and  improved  as  well  as  expressed.  Some  of 
Froebel's  disciples  have  exposed  Froebel  and  them- 
selves to  ridicule  by  failing  to  recognise  fully  the  value 
of  regular  additions  to  the  knowledge  stored  in  the 
mind  by  the  pupils.  They  do  not  overestimate  self -ac- 
tivity or  self-expression,  but  they  do  underestimate  the 
enrichment  of  that  which  demands  expression.  Froe- 
bel never  forgot  the  increase  of  knowledge,  but  he  made 
the  child  an  active  agent  in  the  enrichment  of  its  own 
mind;  never  a  mere  passive  receiver  of  knowledge  chosen 
and  given  by  the  teacher  in  content  and  form. 

Each  of  Froebel's  lessons  included,  so  far  as  possible, 
the  double  process  of  new  revelation  to  the  child  and 
of  new  revelation  by  the  child.  Led  by  the  teacher  in  its 
earliest  efforts,  it  took  the  new  steps  necessary  for  secur- 
ing the  new  element  of  inner  power,  either  of  knowl- 
edge or  of  process;  and  then  it  used  the  new  power  in 
unity  with  the  powers  previously  accumulated  to  reveal 
its  new  and  greater  self.    As  the  child  grows  older  it 


1  ^  Vi 

M       11 


ipjli 


I]  a 


'l^:» 


m: 

1. 

;■'■'":  I 

■\\ . 

116 


FBOBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWSr 


ri«i 


does  more  and  more  of  the  accumulation  of  knowledge 
and  the  enrichment  of  mind  independently  and  needs 
less  guidance  as  to  the  character  of  the  new  study  or 
work,  or  the  method  of  using  it  or  doing  it.  In  this  way 
his  proper  acquisitive  attitude  toward  knowledge  is  re- 
tained through  life,  and  his  natural  impulse  to  execute 
his  own  plans  in  an  ever-improving  self-activity  becomes 
a  part  of  his  character. 

In  all  the  work  of  the  school  the  teacher  should  aim 
to  preserve  the  true  balance  between  revelation  of 
knowledge  and  its  use  in  some  original  form  by  the 
pupils.  In  this  way  only  can  knowledge  become  part  of 
the  personal  power  of  the  child. 

In  drawing,  for  instance,  there  are  really  not  a  great 
many  principles  to  teach.  Skill  results  from  the  intel- 
ligent practice  of  these  principles.  This  practice  may 
be  imitation  or  expression.  Formerly  it  was  almost  ex- 
clusively imitation.  It  should  be  almost  exclusively  ex- 
pression. Expression  in  drawing  represents  the  child's 
own  conceptions.  These  conceptions  may  be  objective 
or  subjective.  The  representation  of  objective  concep- 
tions is  now  generally  practised,  but  the  child  is  usually 
restricted  to  objects  selected  by  the  teacher.  This  de- 
velops representative  power  but  not  selfhood.  Self-ac- 
tivity in  object  drawing  requires  the  child  to  choose 
its  objects.  By  doing  so  its  interest  will  increase  and  its 
special  taste  develop  and  reveal  itself.  There  are  higher 
kinds  of  self-activity  in  drawing  which  are  rarely  prac- 
tised yet.  The  representation  of  imaginative  concep- 
tions requires  a  comprehensive  exercise  of  selfhood, 
and  therefore  is  more  completely  self-activity  than  any 
other  kind  of  drawing.    Imaginative  conceptions  de- 


FBOEBBL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS.         H^ 

velop  the  central  power  in  creativity.  The  content  of 
the  imagination  may  be  designs,  plans,  or  pictures  to 
express  ideals  or  symbolic  representations  of  Nature  or 
human  life  or  any  department  of  the  spiritual  realm. 
Self-expression  in  any  of  these  departments,  the  ex- 
pression in  design  or  plan  or  picture  of  original  concep- 
tion, is  true  self-activity,  and  the  teacher's  work  in  draw- 
ing is  unfinished  unless  it  leads  to  this.  No  subject 
is  truly  educative  till  it  enlarges  or  enriches  the  self- 
hood. 

There  should  be  a  great  deal  of  subjective  repre- 
sentation by  drawing  in  connection  with  history,  litera- 
ture, and  composition.  In  history,  allegorical  pictures 
may  be  drawn  to  represent  the  course  of  events,  or  real 
pictures  may  be  made  as  illustrations  of  events.  Occa- 
sionally the  whole  class  may  be  asked  to  illustrate  the 
same  event,  but  true  self-activity  leaves  each  child  free 
to  select  the  most  important  event,  or  the  one  in  which 
it  is  most  interested.  In  literature  the  child  should 
express  in  drawing  its  conceptions  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful pen  pictures  of  the  authors.  As  in  history,  the  whole 
class  may  be  asked  to  give  pictorial  form  to  the  same 
thought.  This  affords  large  scope  for  individuality,  but 
the  complete  self  is  not  active,  unless  the  selection  of 
the  subject  to  be  illustrated  is  left  to  the  child.  The 
illustration  of  the  pupil's  own  compositions  is  a  type  of 
perfect  self-activity. 

The  child  should  be  encouraged  not  only  to  choose 
its  own  objects  or  subjects  in  each  department  of  draw- 
ing, but  also  to  select  with  the  aid  of  the  teacher's 
judgment  the  department  in  which  it  has  greatest  spe- 
cial power. 


I 


4' 


I :' : . 


VI 


f'fl  III 

I' 


lilt  I!! 


118 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


Composition  is  the  self -active  use  of  the  child's  lan- 
guage,  its  power  to  write,  and  its  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject about  which  it  writes.  It  also  exercises  its  logical 
power,  and  its  consciousness  of  the  interrelationship  of 
the  parts  in  a  complete  whole.  It  is  a  pity  that  the 
subjects  for  composition  are  usually  assigned  by  the 
teacher.  True  self-activity  requires  that  the  child  shall 
choose  its  own  subject.  Then  the  selfhood  originates 
the  process.  There  is  no  educational  reason  requiring 
that  every  child  should  be  compelled  to  write  on  the 
same  subject.  Of  course  the  power  to  write  definitely 
should  be  constantly  developed  by  writing  answers  or 
opinions  in  regard  to  the  other  subjects  on  the  pro- 
gramme of  study  or  in  reporting  the  results  of  investi- 
gations made  by  the  pupils  themselves. 

Brief  exercises  may  be  properly  written  in  composi- 
tion to  develop  power  or  elegance  of  expression  on  the 
same  subject  by  all  the  members  of  a  class;  but  each 
pupil  in  writing  a  regular  composition  should  express 
the  fulness  of  his  mind  in  regard  to  a  subject  which  he 
chooses  for  himself.  Composition  is  shorn  of  half  its 
glory  unless  the  pupil  believes  that  he  can  by  writing 
reveal  new  thoughts  to  those  who  are  to  hear  his  com- 
position read.  A  composition  should  not  merely  ex- 
press what  the  pupil  knows  about  a  subject,  it  should 
express  thought  that  he  believes  to  be  in  some  sense  of 
study  or  original  application  peculiarly  his  own.  If 
pupils  are  defective  in  power  of  selection  or  in  the  self- 
faith  that  gives  reverence  for  their  own  thought,  it 
clearly  proves  that  their  teachers  have  failed  to  develop 
in  them  the  central  element  of  character.  Self-faith 
and  self-reverence  will  develop  naturally  if  afforded  op- 


PROEBEL'S  FUNDAMENTAL  PROCESS. 


119 


portunities  to  do  so  by  the  employment  of  the  selfhood 
in  originating  as  well  as  in  operating. 

In  all  other  forms  of  expression  the  same  principles 
explained  in  connection  with  drawing  and  composition 
should  be  carefully  carried  out.  The  pupils  should  ex- 
press the  leading  thoughts  of  their  own  minds,  the 
clearest  pictures  in  their  own  imaginations.  They  are 
not  alike  by  nature,  and  the  school  does  a  great  wrong 
by  every  practice  that  tends  to  make  them  alike,  and 
by  every  method  which  assumes  that  they  are  possessed 
of  exactly  the  same  powers  and  tendencies.  The  greater 
the  diversity  the  more  perfect  the  unity. 

It  is  not  enough  that  pupils  should  be  trained  to 
choose  the  department  of  each  subject  in  which  they 
have  special  power.  They  should  be  at  liberty  to  con- 
centrate attention  more  specifically  on  the  subject  in 
which  they  have  greatest  power  to  excel.  This  subject 
or  class  of  subjects  represents  the  selfhood  or  indi- 
viduality, and  while  all  subjects  of  culture  and  power 
should  be  studied  faithfully,  it  should  receive  special 
attention,  as  it  undoubtedly  indicates  the  direction  in 
which  the  individual  can  do  his  best  work  for  the  race. 
If  voluntary  selection  is  encouraged,  voluntary  atten- 
tion will  become  a  vital  element  in  the  development  of 
the  child,  as  it  will  be  constantly  impelled  by  active  per- 
sonal interest. 

Self-choice  should  be  exercised  to  a  large  extent  in 
connection  with  the  study  and  work  to  be  done  by  pu- 
pils at  home.  In  school,  where  each  teacher  usually 
has  a  large  number  of  pupils  in  the  same  grade,  the  pu- 
pils must  necessarily  be  taught  together  during  the  day. 
This  is  one  of  the  child's  greatest  misfortunes.   There  is 


.ri 


iM 


lii: 


>  m 


\m 


i^r 


■,  i 


III.: 


120 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


no  reason  for  continuing  the  dwarfing  part  of  the  edu- 
cational process  during  the  evening.  If  pupils  can  not 
choose  wisely,  or  if  they  do  not  work  at  all,  except 
under  the  compulsion  of  class  standing  or  some  other 
external  stimulus,  the  teacher's  highest  duty  is  to  de- 
velop in  the  defective  or  delinquent  pupils  the  power 
of  choice  and  the  love  of  work.  These  are  much  greater 
elements  in  character  than  accuracy  and  rapidity  in 
solving  mathematical  problems,  or  a  memory  well 
stored  with  facts  relating  even  to  the  most  important 
subjects.  True  self-activity  in  connection  with  the 
subject  of  a  pupil's  greatest  special  aptitude  is  the 
best  correlative  agency  to  form  the  natural  bond  of 
imity  between  all  the  subjects  of  a  school  course.  The 
outcome  of  all  discussion  as  to  the  subject  through 
which  all  others  may  be  correlated,  will  be  the  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  each  child  can  correlate  most 
fully  through  the  subject  most  directly  related  to  its 
own  greatest  power. 

Self-activity,  including  the  origination  as  well  as 
the  execution  of  the  motives,  was  well  chosen  by  Froe- 
bel  as  the  fundamental  process  of  his  system.  It 
arouses  the  only  perfect  interest  and  attention;  it  makes 
the  mind  aggressively  active  in  regard  to  new  knowl- 
edge, and  therefore  secures  the  most  thorough  appercep- 
tion; it  leads  to  the  most  complete  correlation  of  the 
subjects  of  study;  it  develops  selfhood,  and  reveals  it 
to  both  teacher  and  pupil;  it  encourages  self -faith  and 
Belf-reverence  by  giving  a  consciousness  of  original, 
creative  power;  it  makes  productive  work  an  expression 
of  joyous  gratitude;  it  is  the  elemental  law  of  human 
growth. 

\ 


CHAPTER  V. 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FAOTOB. 


In  describing  Pestalozzi's  school  at  Yverdun,  Froe- 
bel  says:  "  I  also  studied  the  boys'  play,  the  whole  series 
of  games  in  the  open  air,  and  learned  to  recognise  their 
mighty  power  to  awake  and  to  strengthen  the  intelli- 
gence  and  the  soul  as  well  as  the  body.  In  these  games 
and  what  was  connected  with  them  I  detected  the  main- 
spring of  the  moral  strength  which  animated  the  pupils 
and  the  young  people  in  the  institution.  The  games,  I 
am  now  fervently  assured,  formed  a  mental  bath  of 
extraordinary  strengthening  power."  The  value  of  play 
as  an  educational  influence  became  more  clear  to  him 
year  by  year  until  he  made  it  an  organic  part  of  his 
educational  system.  His  views  in  regard  to  play  may  be 
found  in  the  following  quotations  from  his  writings: 

"Even  if  I  have  brought  no  new  thoughts  to  the 
subject,  as  some  ^vill  maintain,  even  if  the  goal  and  aim 
of  this  education  has  long  been  known,  /  have  given 
something  new  in  my  childish  playSy  for  they  show 
how  we  must  begin  to  give  activity  to  the  powers  of 
childhood  in  order  that  they  shall  neither  rust  and 
be  lost  for  want  of  use  nor  overstrained  by  too  early 
study." 

m 


122 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


4'  ■: 


fi 


■  ! 


;!;!• 


"  Child's  play  strengthens  the  powers  both  of  the 
soul  and  the  body  provided  we  know  how  to  make  the 
first  self-occupation  of  a  child  a  freely  active,  that  is,  a 
creative  or  productive  one." 

"  The  plays  of  the  child  contain  the  germ  of  the 
whole  life  that  is  to  follow;  for  the  man  develops  and 
manifests  himself  in  play,  and  reveals  the  noblest  apti- 
tudes and  the  deepest  elements  of  his  being." 

"  Play  is  the  highest  phase  of  child  development — of 
human  development  at  this  period;  for  it  is  self-active 
representation  of  the  inner  from  inner  necessity  and 
impulse." 

"  The  plays  of  childhood  are  the  germinal  leaves  of 
all  later  life;  for  the  whole  man  is  developed  and  shown 
in  these,  in  his  tenderest  dispositions,  in  his  innermost 
tendencies." 

"  It  is  the  sense  of  sure  and  reliable  power,  the  sense 
of  its  increase  both  as  an  individual  and  as  a  member  of 
the  group,  that  fills  the  boy  with  all-pervading  jubilant 
joy  during  these  games.  It  is  by  no  means,  however, 
•43f  the  physical  power  that  is  fed  and  strengthened 
in  these  games;  intellectual  and  moral  power,  too,  is 
definitely  and  steadily  gained  and  brought  under  con- 
trol. Indeed,  a  comparison  of  the  relative  gains  of  the 
mental  and  of  the  physical  phases  would  scarcely  yield 
the  palm  to  the  body.  Justice,  moderation,  self-control, 
truthfulness,  loyalty,  brotherly  love,  and  again  strict 
impartiality^ — ^who  when  he  approaches  a  group  of  boys 
engaged  in  such  games  could  fail  to  catch  the  fragrance 
of  these  delicious  blossomings  of  the  heart  and  mind, 
and  of  a  firm  will;  not  to  mention  the  beautiful,  though 
perhaps  less  fragrant^,  blospoms  of  courage,  persever- 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.         123 


ance,   resolution,   prudence,   together  with   the   severe 
elimination  of  indolent  indulgence?  " 

These  quotations  from  the  writings  of  Froebel  prove 
that  he  recognised  the  value  of  play  as  an  educational 
agent  more  clearly  than  any  other  educational  reformer. 
Other  writers  before  his  time,  especially  Plato  and  Rich- 
ter,  had  noted  the  benefits  of  play  in  mind  development 
and  character  formation  as  well  as  in  physical  training, 
but  Froebel  saw  its  advantages  much  more  clearly  than 
any  of  them.  He  revealed  to  the  world  the  essential 
function  of  play  in  the  evolution  of  the  child  in  every 
department  of  its  power,  and  to  him  alone  belongs  the 
credit  of  making  play  a  definite  and  important  part  of 
the  scholastic  education  of  a  child.  He  was  not  con- 
tent that  any  educational  force  should  be  left  to  chance 
opportunity  in  securing  its  proper  influence  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  race,  and  therefore  he  organized  play 
as  a  vital  part  of  his  educational  system  for  the  training 
of  young  children.  If  he  had  done  no  more  for  educa- 
tion than  this  he  would  have  been  a  great  educator.  In 
regard  to  play,  he  did  for  education  what  the  greatest 
inventors  have  done  for  the  industrial  evolution  of  hu- 
manity. They  revealed  practical  plans  for  utilizing  rec- 
ognised forces.  They  deserve  the  gratitude  of  the  race 
not  because  they  discovered  new  forces,  but  because 
they  made  these  forces  subservient  to  civilization.  Froe- 
bel did  not  discover  play  as  an  influence  in  the  evolution 
of  man's  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  power.  He 
understood  its  dominant  influence  on  each  of  these  de- 
partments of  human  power  more  fully  than  any  other 
educator,  but  he  was  not  satisfied  with  clear  seeing,  nor 
with  giving  to  his  feljpwp  ^  fi^lj  exposition  of  the  phi- 


.,  i 


I'S  ! 


IiNf 


i  I  'Vi 


124 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


losophy  of  play  as  revealed  to  him.  He  transformed  his 
insight  into  practical  reality,  and  made  play  a  vital  ele- 
ment among  the  organized  educational  forces,  that 
should  be  used  in  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral 
culture  of  humanity. 

The  introduction  of  play  as  a  fundamental  element 
in  his  kindergarten  work  made  play  culture  objective, 
and  forced  the  consideration  of  its  educational  value  on 
teachers  everywhere.  The  result  of  this  has  been  of 
incalculable  benefit  in  two  ways:  teachers  are  awak- 
ening to  the  importance  of  play  as  an  educational 
agency,  and  a  truer  ideal  has  been  established  in  regard 
to  the  aim  of  education.  The  old  idea,  that  the  mere 
storing  of  the  memory  was  the  highest  work  of  the 
teacher,  made  it  difficult  for  teachers  to  believe  that  any 
one  could  seriously  suggest  that  play  should  be  made  an 
organic  school  process  to  be  systematically  carried  on  as 
a  regular  means  of  educating  children.  At  first  the 
suggestion  met  with  ridicule  only;  then  leading  minds 
acknowledged  that  play  might  be  of  advantage  as  a  rest 
and  a  change  from  severe  mental  work;  next  it  dawned 
on  a  few  progressive  teachers  that  play  was  really  bet- 
ter than  formal  physical  exercises  for  training  the  child 
physically  in  varied  activity  and  in  natural  graceful- 
ness; until  now  the  world  is  beginning  to  understand 
that  Froebel  made  play  an  organic  part  of  his  educa- 
tional system  not  alone  for  recreation  and  relaxation, 
nor  for  physical  culture  only,  but  as  the  most  natural 
and  most  effective  agency  for  developing  the  child's 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  nature,  and  for  revealing 
and  defining  its  individuality.  Play  is  so  entirely  differ- 
ent from  the  old-school  processes  that  the  recognition 


:-?ir 


■¥TW 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


125 


of  play  as  a  means  of  educating  children  has  completely 
altered  the  standpoint  of  educational  thinkers,  and  has 
done  much  to  free  them  from  the  dogma  that  '^  knowl- 
edge alone  is  power." 

FroebeFs  work  in  undertaking  to  systematize  play 
and  direct  it  so  as  to  make  it  most  effective  as  an  edu- 
cational force  was  a  difficult  and  delicate  task.  He  knew 
that  spontaneity  must  not  be  sacrificed  to  system,  as  the 
great  value  of  play  intellectually  and  morally  depends 
on  the  freedom  of  the  child  in  expressing  its  own  pur- 
poses and  carrying  out  its  own  decisions.  It  is  because 
play  enables  the  child  to  act  independently  within  the 
limits  of  certain  laws,  that  it  is  especially  valuable  as 
an  educational  agency.  It  affords  the  child  the  best 
possible  conditions  for  revealing  its  inner  characteristics 
in  outward  form  and  action,  and  is  therefore  the  best 
way  to  strengthen  and  define  its  selfhood.  FroebeFs 
task  was  the  systematizing  of  play  under  the  leadership 
of  adults,  without  robbing  play  of  its  freedom  or  the 
child  of  its  perfect  spontaneity  and  independence  of  ac- 
tion. He  knew,  however,  that  reasonable  law  is  the 
surest  foundation  for  perfect  liberty,  and  that  the  child 
loves  its  plays  none  the  less  because  they  are  gov- 
erned by  definite  rules,  and  he  took  care  that  so  far  as 
possible  the  kindergartner  or  teacher  should  not  re- 
strict the  freedom  or  check  the  spirit  of  the  children. 
There  is  no  more  lifeless  exercise  than  a  game  played 
by  children  when  they  are  not  interested  in  it  on  their 
V  own  account.  The  teacher's  part  is  to  suggest  a  change 
''when  joyous  interest  is  beginning  to  wane,  to  arouse 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  unsympathetic,  to  encourage 
the  timid  to  undertake  new  duties  and  assume  new 


^;i 


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51 

J, 

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s 

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1  i 

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M 

in 


rrr^- 


126 


FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I' 


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positions,  occasionally  by  skilfully  assigning  them  lead- 
erships which  they  can  assuredly  fill  successfully,  and 
to  applaud  the  effort  to  succeed  even  more  than  the 
achievement  of  success.  In  all  her  connection  with 
the  playing  of  childhood  the  teacher  must  be  governed 
by  a  genuine  sympathy  with  child  life,  and  all  her  sug- 
gestions must  be  given  in  the  spirit  of  helpfulness,  so  that 
no  child  may  ever  be  conscious  of  the  shadow  of  inter- 
fering domination,  which  blights  its  joyousness,  checks 
its  freedom,  or  dwarfs  its  individuality. 

Confining  the  consideration  of  the  advantages  of 
play  to  the  physical  nature  only,  it  is  now  generally  ad- 
mitted that  play  gives  greater  variety  of  activity  and  in- 
creases the  power  of  the  vital  life-producing  organs 
more  than  any  formal  exercises.  No  other  process  can 
increase  lung  and  circulation  power  so  rapidly  and  so 
effectively  as  running  to  accomplish  a  clearly  defined 
purpose  in  connection  with  a  game  or  play.  Dr.  F.  A. 
Schmidt,  of  Bonn,  says:  "  In  the  running  game  lies  for 
the  youth  a  healthy  development  of  the  lungs  which 
can  not  be  produced  by  any  other  method.  Not  to  give 
the  children  the  desire  to  run  about  freely  means  that 
one  sins  against  the  health  of  the  rising  generation." 
Dr.  Hamilton,  after  an  examination  of  the  British  sol- 
diers at  Aldershott,  in  which  he  found  them  defective  in 
chest  capacity,  wrote:  "There  can  be  no  doubt  what- 
ever as  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  habit  of  deep  breath- 
ing— full  inspiration,  deep  expiration — ^in  ordinai^jr  life. 
Children  ought  to  be  regularly  trained  in  this,  as  under 
ordinary  circumstances  at  ten  years  of  age  they  have 
lost  nearly  nine  inches  of  chest  girth." 

The  element  of  joyous  interest  in  play  has  an  im- 


i!f    li 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


127 


sniifl- 


portant  influence  on  the  physical  advantages  resulting 
from  it.  The  joyousness  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  bene- 
ficial as  the  exercise  to  the  health  of  children.  Play  is 
the  perfect  co-ordination  of  joy  and  activity.  The  ac- 
tivity of  play  is  itself  the  chief  source  of  joy  in  the  early 
stage  of  a  child's  life.  Another  decided  advantage  of 
play  is  the  fact  that  the  fatigue  point  is  not  reached 
in  play  as  soon  as  in  formal  exercises.  A  boy  will  run 
all  day  without  becoming  tired,  if  he  is  running  to  ac- 
complish his  own  purposes  in  play.  The  same  boy 
will  tire  very  quickly  of  formal  exercises,  although  he 
makes  much  more  energetic  efforts  in  playing  than  when 
engaged  in  the  formal  exercise. 

Froebel  was  so  profoundly  impressed  by  his  founda- 
tion law  of  unity  or  interrelationship  that  he  aimed  to 
develop  the  whole  being  of  a  child  by  every  school 
process,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  so.  This  law  of 
unity  made  him  the  prince  of  correlationists  and  led 
him  to  value  play  more  than  formal  physical  culture, 
because  its  good  effects  are  more  directly  felt  in  every 
department  of  the  nature  of  the  child.  He  did  not 
underestimate  the  work  of  formal  education  either  in 
physical  training  or  any  other  department  of  culture, 
but  he  insisted  on  the  application  of  his  law  of  self-ac- 
tivity in  physical  education  as  fully  as  in  mental  or 
moral  education.  He  gave  direct  instruction  in  all 
subjects  and  departments  of  training  in  order  that  the 
child  might  have  new  elements  of  power  to  use  in  ex- 
pressing its  own  individuality. 

Formal  physical  culture  he  did  not  regard  as  an 
end  in  education  any  more  than  the  formal  teaching  of 
the  process  of  writing  or  drawing.    Writing  and  draw- 


m 

Mi 

.    I-      :  i 

Iv         '         i    ! 

t       i!^' 

|J 

128 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


ing  he  taught,  that  the  pupil  might  have  new  methods 
of  self-expression,  and  so  by  formal  physical  training  he 
would  define  and  strengthen  the  power  of  the  muscles, 
improve  the  posture  of  the  body,  increase  the  functional 
power  of  the  heart,  lungs,  and  other  vital  organs,  and 
especially  remedy  any  constitutional  or  hereditary  physi- 
cal defects,  in  order  that  the  body  might  become 
mightier  and  more  perfectly  responsive  in  executing  the 
decisions  of  the  mind  in  a  definite  and  persistent  man- 
ner. In  physical  education,  as  in  all  other  education,  he 
demanded  that  the  child  should  originate  as  well  as  exe- 
cute the  idea  in  order  to  make  its  effort  completely  edu- 
cative, and  therefore  he  advocated  play  instead  of  for- 
mal physical  culture,  because  interest  stimulated  effort 
and  action  expressed  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the 
actor.  Mr.  Bowen  says:  "  Physical  exercise  should  in 
the  main  be  the  expression  of  ideas  and  feelings,  how- 
ever simple;  and  that  is  why  school  games,  when  order- 
ly and  free,  are  found  in  practice  to  be  of  much  greater 
value  than  school  gymnastics,  especially  such  as  are 
merely  acrobatic." 

Froebel  saw  the  interrelationship  between  the  body 
and  the  mind  so  clearly  that  he  believed  the  brain  it- 
self was  largely  dependent  on  the  action  of  the  body  for 
its  growth.  The  investigations  of  physiological  psy- 
chology have  proved  his  theory  to  be  correct.  He  gave 
a  new  dignity  to  physical  culture  by  showing  it  to  have 
an  important  influence  in  the  development  of  the  brain 
and  the  complete  co-ordination  of  the  entire  neuro- 
logical system.  The  whole  body  in  its  voluntary 
and  involuntary  action  is  directed  by  the  brain 
and  other  parts  of  the  neurological  system^  and  there 


PLAY  AS  AN  BDtCATIONAL  FACTOR.         129 


is  no  doubt  that  the  body  is  influenced  by  the  mind; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  the  mind  is  influenced  by  the 
body.  They  are  parts  of  the  same  unity  and  they  rise 
or  fall  together  in  physical  quality.  The  interdepend- 
ence between  body  and  mind  is  so  complete  that  the 
body,  in  its  modes  of  action  and  even  in  the  form  of  its 
executive  parts,  reveals  the  character.  The  unity  is  so 
perfect  that  body  and  mind  react  on  each  other,  so  that 
the  body  not  only  reveals  the  mind  but  helps  to  form  it. 
The  improvement  of  the  body  aids  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  brain  in  many  ways.  No  physical  training 
is  worthy  of  the  name  of  true  culture  that  does  not  pri- 
marily aim  to  improve  the  condition  and  increase  the 
functional  power  of  the  vital  organs.  The  brain  feels 
the  advantage  of  better  digestion,  circulation,  and  respi- 
ration more  quickly  than  any  other  organ.  The  quality 
of  the  brain's  action  depends  on  its  organization,  but  the 
energy  of  its  action  and  the  length  of  time  during  which 
it  can  act  without  fatigue  depend  on  the  way  it  is  nour- 
ished. Perfect  nutrition  repairs  the  waste  caused  by 
intellectual  effort,  and  enables  the  brain  to  sustain  ener- 
getic action  without  loss  of  renewal  power.  External 
stimulus  is  always  dangerous  to  the  brain  unless  it  is 
well  sustained  by  the  internal  stimulus  of  good  nutri- 
tion. Thousands  of  teachers  still  blight  the  intellects 
they  aim  to  develop  and  store  by  applying  external  stim- 
uli to  overworked  and  poorly  nourished  brains.  The 
more  earnest  and  enthusiastic  such  teachers  become 
the  more  dangerous  they  are.  The  teacher  who  by  his 
personal  enthusiasm  spurs  tired  brains  to  work  beyond 
the  fatigue  point  is  the  enemy  of  his  pupils.  He  weak- 
ens them  at  the  centre  of  their  educational  power.    It 


*  Pi' 


'  w\ 


n!  I 


130 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


is  unfortunately  true  that  the  weakest  and  most  ncrr- 
ous  children  are  most  liable  to  yield  to  the  inspiration 
of  the  teachers  whose  educational  motto  is  "  Bring 
them  on  I "  The  robust  boy  who  plays  vigorously  and 
eats  well;  laughs  and  sleeps  on,  indifferent  to  the  urgent 
appeals  of  his  teacher  to  work  hard  at  his  lessons;  the 
delicate  girl  whose  nervous  system  is  already  too  sensi- 
tive, and  whose  brain  is  already  too  active,  is  eae^^^'  led 
to  study  too  hard  and  too  long.  Shattered  heal  and 
loss  of  power  are  usually  the  result  of  over-effort  on  the 
part  of  the  students  whose  nervous  and  nutritive  sys- 
tems are  weak.  Ambitious  parents  and  "high-pres- 
sure "  teachers  are  responsible  for  many  of  the  ills  that 
increasingly  afflict  civilized  communities. 

The  difficulty  arises  from  the  narrow  misconception 
of  what  education  really  means.  The  general  view  con- 
fines education  to  the  storing  and  culture  of  the  intel- 
lect, and  takes  no  account  of  the  body.  From  the  pri- 
mary school  to  the  university  intellectual  tests  a'  •  are 
taken  as  the  standard  by  which  educational  pro^.  js  is 
measured.  The  primary  pupil  is  promoted  and  the  uni- 
versity student  is  graduated  on  the  basis  of  intellectual 
accomplishment  and  the  remembrance  of  his  stored 
knowledge.  Teachers  and  professors  ignore  the  fact 
that  the  human  being  is  an  organic  unity,  and  that 
whatever  tends  to  destroy  the  balance  of  the  individual 
elements  in  the  unity  must  be  evil  in  its  influence. 
Many  graduates  from  schools  and  universities  go  forth 
to  the  battle  of  life  with  honors  in  their  hands  and 
weakness  in  their  bodies.  They  owe  both  to  their  school 
or  university  training. 

The  most  necessary  improvement  in  scholastic  work  is 
■  .     ■  \ 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.        181 


a  recognition  of  the  urgent  need  of  bodily  training.  It  is 
beginning  to  receive  recognition  in  many  schools  and 
some  universities,  but  the  recognition  so  far  given  is 
more  negative  than  positive.  The  body  should  receive 
definite,  systematic  training  because  it  is  the  executive 
agent  of  the  mind;  because  energetic  and  sustained 
mental  action  depends  on  the  support  of  healthy,  well- 
developed  vital  organs;  because  good  health  is  essential 
to  the  highest  success  in  the  business  of  life;  and  be- 
cause the  bodily  activities  directly  influence  the  devel- 
opment and  organization  of  the  brain  and  the  rest  of 
the  neurological  system.  The  body  deserves  the  recog- 
nition which  Froebel  gave  it,  as  a  part  of  the  interre- 
lated, interdependent  unity,  man.  A  man  can  not  be 
considered  properly  educated  so  long  as  any  part  of  his 
nature  is  undeveloped  or  untrained.  No  one  depart- 
ment of  human  power  can  be  educated  at  the  expense  of 
another  department  without  injury  to  the  organic 
whole.  This  is  one  of  Froebel's  fundamental  principles, 
which  has  so  far  received  only  partial  recognition. 
When  it  is  fully  ui  lerstood,  physical  culture  will  be 
more  universally  adopted  as  an  essential  part  of  scholas- 
tic training,  and  physical  development  will  be  taken  into 
consideration  in  awarding  graduation  diplomas  and  de- 
grees. There  is  as  much  objection  to  the  course  of  the 
college  undergraduate  who  ignores  his  physical  life  in 
a  mad  strife  for  what  are  called  scholastic  honours  as 
to  that  of  the  student  who  entirely  sacrifices  mental  cul- 
ture to  athletics.  The  word  "scholastic"  will  yet  haye 
a  wider  meaning,  which  will  include  the  development  of 
the  physical  nature  as  well  as  the  storing  of  the  mind; 
The  schools  and  universities  will  soon  break  the. bonds 
10 


132 


FBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


.  t     1 


of  mediaevalism  and  extend  the  meaning  of  terms  that 
have  limited  the  range  of  vision  of  educators  for  centu- 
ries. No  definition  of  education  now  limits  its  meaning 
to  mind  storing,  or  to  mind  storing  with  power  to  re- 
produce at  examinations  what  is  in  the  mind;  but  the 
schools  in  giving  diplomas,  and  the  universities  in  grant- 
ing degrees,  still  act  in  conformity  with  this  narrowest 
of  all  definitions  of  education.  If  on  the  staff  of  a  uni- 
versity there  were  one  fifth  as  many  professors  to  train 
the  bodies  of  students  as  there  are  to  develop  and  store 
their  minds,  it  would  be  easy  to  discover  a  system  of 
ranking  students  physically  on  a  basis  as  absolutely  fair 
and  just  as  that  now  adopted  in  marking  them  for  their 
intellectual  acquirements.  In  some  way  every  element 
that  has  a  dominant  influence  in  deciding  a  student's 
€  ness  for  a  successful  and  noble  life  should  be  consid- 
ered by  the  faculty  of  his  school  or  university  in  award- 
ing him  a  diploma  or  a  degree.  The  full  comprehension 
of  FroebePs  law  of  unity  will  make  clear  the  duty  of  all 
educators  to  train  the  body  as  the  agent,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  developer,  of  the  mind. 

The  activities  of  the  body  have  a  direct  influence 
on  the  growth  of  the  brain  itself.  Physical  exercise  can 
not  increase  the  number  of  cells  in  the  brain,  bat  it  does 
develop  cells  that  without  it  would  have  remained  dor- 
mant or  only  partially  developed.  The  muscular  sys- 
tem of  all  parts  of  the  body  has  corresponding  brain 
»:rea8  to  direct  its  activities.  If  even  the  little  finger  be 
not  trained  to  act  with  as  much  force,  grace,  and  variety 
of  movement  as  it  is  capable  of,  there  is  a  certain  part 
of  the  brain  that  has  not  reached  its  highest  possible 
development.    Neurologists  claim  that  there  is  a  natural 


PLAY  A3  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.         133 


order  in  which  muscular  activity  should  be  developed, 
and  that  unless  the  natural  order  be  followed,  perfect 
brain  development  and  complete  neurological  co-ordi- 
nation can  never  be  attained.  They  claim  also  that 
school  processes  in  writing,  drawing,  and  other  forms  of 
manual  work,  have  vio!  ied  the  natural  order  of  devel- 
opment by  training  the  finger  movements  before  the 
movements  of  the  shoulder  and  elbow  have  been  prac- 
tised sufficiently  to  develop  the  parts  of  the  brain  corre- 
sponding to  them,  and  define  the  nerve  channels  which 
connect  them  with  the  brain.  Undoubtedly  the  evil 
results  of  this  error  would  be  much  more  clearly  seen  if 
pupils  were  in  school  all  the  time,  and  if  their  activities 
were  limited  to  the  schoolroom.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, children  usually  get  a  fair  amount  of  exercise  out 
of  school.  If  it  were  not  for  this  fact  many  of  their 
brain  areas  would  remain  undeveloped  throughout  their 
lives.  Teachers  and  experimental  psychologists  have  a 
wide  field  for  research  in  order  to  learn  not  only  how 
writing,  drawing,  and  manual  work  of  all  kinds  should 
be  taught  without  changing  the  proper  order  of  neuro- 
logical development,  but  in  what  order  physical  exer* 
cises  should  be  performed  to  aid  the  growth  of  thp 
brain  in  conformity  with  the  laws  which  govern  its  per- 
fect natural  evolution. 

Physical  activity  not  only  develops  the  brain  itself, 
it  stimulates  the  growth  of  the  extensions  of  the  cells 
throughout  the  nervous  system,  the  neurons  and  the 
dendrons,  and  thus  completes  the  organization  of  the 
nervous  system  with  the  muscular  system.  It  accom- 
plishes the  still  higher  work  of  co-ordinating  the  sensor 
and  motor  systems  and  establishing  the  necessary  defi- 


m\ 


li  1^" 


134 


PROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


nite  reactions  between  the  sensor  and  motor  brain 
areas.  Froebel  believed  tliat  plays  were  much  more 
effective  in  the  achievement  of  these  purposes  than 
formal  physical  exercises,  because  the  motor  stimulus 
in  executing  an  independent  decision  in  a  game  is  more 
definite  and  more  forceful  than  in  carrying  out  an 
instruction  from  a  teacher,  or  imitating  a  leader;  and 
because  while  playing  the  child  has  to  perform  such  an 
infinite  variety  of  movements.  The  unexpected  calls 
to  new  duties  that  continually  come  to  each  player  in  a 
game  give  the  highest  opportunities  for  the  perfect  co- 
ordination of  the  entire  neurological  system.  The  senses 
must  act  with  accuracy  in  reporting  the  exigencies  of 
the  game  to  the  brain;  the  brain  must  decide  promptly 
the  proper  course  to  be  taken;  the  motor  system  must 
receive  and  conduct  the  message  from  the  brain  to  the 
muscles  definitely,  and  the  muscles  must  respond  freoly 
and  execute  the  work  assigned  to  them  unerringly,  if 
the  player  is  master  of  the  position  he  fills.  Every  es- 
sential element  and  condition  required  to  perfectly  co- 
ordinate the  controlling  department  of  a  human  being 
is  fully  supplied  by  a  good  game.  The  ever-varying  con- 
ditions require  alertness  of  sense,  active  attention,  quick 
judgment,  strong  reaction  of  brain  on  motor  nerves,  and 
perfect  responsiveness  of  muscles.  Every  part  of  the 
delicate  machinery  of  a  perfect  manhood  is  called  into 
developing  activity  by  a  good  game. 

One  of  the  chief  advantages  of  all  physical  culture, 
and  especially  of  plays,  is  the  training  given  to  the 
motor  system.  For  centuries  the  schools  have  culti- 
vated the  sensor  at  the  expense  of  the  motor  system. 
Whether  as  a  result  of  this  one-sided  training  or  not,  it 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


135 


is  a  fact  that  the  sensor  system  is  now  stronger  than  the 
motor,  and  there  is  no  danger  of  developing  the  motor 
power  and  tendency  too  much.  The  greatest  weakness 
of  humanity  is  the  lack  of  power,  often  the  lack  of  re- 
active tendency,  to  do  as  well  as  it  knows;  to  execute 
its  decisions;  to  accomplish  its  designs;  to  complete  its 
insight  in  attainment.  Most  teachers  omit  executive  or 
motor  training,  heing  satisfied  with  storing  the  minds  of 
their  pupils  with  the  culture  products  of  the  ages,  and 
neglecting  to  use  these  culture  products  to  stimulate 
motor  or  executive  reactions  in  their  pupils.  Executive 
tendency  is  a  needed  force,  and  education  should  de- 
velop this  tendency  in  the  race.  Few  of  the  ordinary 
school  processes  require  the  development  of  motor  re- 
action. All  mere  study  dwarfs  motor  power  by  bring- 
ing to  the  brain  new  impressions  that  do  not  stimulate 
motor  activity.  Even  such  executive  subjects  as  writing 
and  drawing  as  usually  taught  do  not  aid  much  in  estab- 
lishing executive  reaction  between  the  brain  and  the 
motor  system.  The  writing  and  drawing  must  be  self-ex- 
pression, the  manifestation  of  original  thought,  in  order 
that  the  individual  shall  receive  the  fullest  motor  devel- 
opment. All  physical  training  aids  in  the  development 
of  the  motor  system.  However  a  purpose  is  formed 
in  the  mind,  it  is  immediately  carried  out  in  physical 
exercise.  The  instruction  to  perform  a  certain  move- 
ment may  be  given  by  the  teacher's  command,  or  by 
signal,  or  by  a  leader  whose  actions  are  to  be  imitated, 
but,  however  it  is  communicated,  it  is  acted  upon  as 
soon  as  it  is  received.  This  must  aid  in  developing  the 
executive  tendency  in  a  child,  because  it  helps  to  form 
the  h?^bit  of  motor  reaction, 


I 


13(^ 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


-rl 


Playing  is  more  effective  than  any  other  form  of 
physical  exercise  in  developing  motor  power  and  tend- 
ency. In  other  forms  of  physical  exercise  the  mind 
merely  conveys  the  message  of  some  other  person  to 
the  motor  system.  The  mind  of  the  individual  acting 
does  no  original  thinking.  The  activity  is  the  result 
of  a  suggestion  received  from  outside  th€!  mind.  The 
process  is  responsive  activity  instead  of  true  self-ac- 
tivity, and  it  therefore  lacks  fulness  of  educative  force, 
as  responsive  activity  always  does,  when  compared  with 
self -activity.  Activity  in  response  to  the  teacher's  com- 
mand or  signal  develops  a  motor  character  that  acts  well 
under  the  guidance  or  leadership  of  another.  Such  a 
character  makes  a  useful  member  of  society,  but  he  is 
not  the  most  perfect  character.  The  aim  of  education 
should  be  to  make  self-directing  men  and  women  with 
positive  characters.  There  are  three  types  of  character: 
those  whose  motor  systems  are  not  developed,  who  are 
trained  to  receive  knowledge  and  to  reflect  without  ac- 
q^iiring  a  tendency  to  execute  their  decisions;  those  who 
are  trained  to  act  in  response  to  the  suggestions  or 
orders  of  others;  and  those  who  think  independently 
and  try  to  carry  out  their  conclusions.  The  first  char- 
acter is  negative,  the  second  responsively  positive,  and 
the  third  independently  positive.  The  third  is  the  ideal 
character  which  the  schools  should  aim  to  develop. 
The  rapidly  changing  conditions  of  a  good  game,  and 
the  complications  incident  to  a  keen  struggle,  afford  per- 
fect opportunities  for  motor  development.  Commands 
are  sent  at  the  same  moment  for  instantaneous  execution 
to  the  muscles  of  the  arms,  legs,  and  body,  to  run,  to 
Bpring,  to  cfitchy  to  thirow,  to  lean  f o^ardj  backward^  oi 


H 

131 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


137 


sideward.  The  whole  body  is  called  upon  to  perform 
the  most  unexpected  feats  of  agility,  and  to  do  them 
promptly  and  definitely.  In  the  game  of  lacrosse,  for 
instance,  the  ball  is  thrown  and  the  players  on  both 
sides  staH  to  gain  possession  of  it  when  it  falls.  lie 
who  exercises  best  judgment  as  to  the  place  at  which 
the  ball  will  drop,  and  whose  fleetness  is  equal  to  his 
judgment,  secures  the  ball;  but  his  opponents  are 
within  a  few  feet  of  him,  straining  every  nerve  to  reach 
him  before  he  can  deliver  it.  In  a  fraction  of  a  second 
his  eye  must  sweep  the  field  to  discover  what  disposi- 
tion he  should  make  of  the  ball.  He  always  has  a  choice 
of  several  plays.  It  may  be  best  to  throw  to  one  of  his 
own  side,  who  is  "  uncovered  "  or  free  in  front,  or  to  his 
right  or  left,  or  behind  him;  or  it  may  be  wisest  to  make 
a  long  throw  on  the  flags;  or  he  may  decide  to  "  dodge  " 
his  opponents  by  the  "  over-drop  "  "  or  the  under-drop," 
or  to  pass  them  by  feinting  and  sweeping  past  them; 
but  the  important  educational  development  results 
from  the  fact  that  his  choice  must  be  made  in  an 
instant,  and  his  decision  executed  at  once.  No  other 
process  so  completely  develops  the  mastery  of  the  mind 
over  the  body  and  so  fully  trains  the  body  to  respond 
perfectly  to  the  mind  as  a  good  game.  The  brain,  the 
motor  system,  and  the  entire  body  are  co-ordinated  in 
their  action,  until  the  expert  player  performs  feats  of 
agility  or  skill  which  to  the  unpractised  appear  to  be  al- 
most impossible. 

This  infinite  variety  of  motion,  in  which  all  the 
muscles  of  the  body  are  called  upon  to  participate  to  the 
fullest  extent  of  their  power  and  activity,  gives  to  play 
a  double  value.    It  gives  a  symmetrical  and  compre- 


-ilii 


i;    .1 


•H 


I  ' 


138 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


i';ii,i; 


I' ., 


■ 


1*4 


4»». 


1, 


n- 


U4 


J 


IV 


hensive  physical  culture,  and  it  calls  every  part  of  the 
motor  brain  into  action  and  therefore  aids  in  its  de- 
velopment. 

There  are  two  classes  of  games  that  are  especially 
important  for  young  children:  the  running  games  and 
the  throwing,  bowling,  and  quoiting  games.  Bunning 
is  the  great  developer  of  lung  power.  The  heart,  too,  is 
strengthened  by  the  increased  exercise  caused  by  the 
greater  demands  made  on  it  during  a  running  game. 
Full  development  of  heart  and  lungs  depends  largely  on 
the  running  games  of  childhood  and  boyhood.  Teachers 
neglect  one  of  their  most  important  duties  if  they  fail 
to  give  specific  attention  to  running  games  for  pupils 
from  seven  to  twelve  years  of  age.  There  may  be  chil- 
dren whose  hearts  are  organically  diseased,  who  may  be 
injured  by  running  exercises  continued  too  long.  It  is 
therefore  important  to  guard  against  overexertion  at 
first. 

The  throwing,  bowling,  and  quoiting  games  are  of 
the  highest  value  in  co-ordinating  the  neurological  sys- 
tem, and  in  developing  motor  control  of  the  muscles  of 
the  executive  parts  of  the  body  in  proper  order.  In  all 
such  games  the  ball  or  other  plaything  used  is  held 
in  the  closed  hand,  and  so  the  fingers  are  not  called  into 
action.  The  muscles  of  the  shoulders  and  arms  are 
trained  to  respond  to  the  decisions  of  the  brain,  and  in 
this  way  the  nerve  connections  are  established  with  these 
muscles  and  the  proper  neurological  centres  are  first  de- 
fined. It  would  be  well  if  all  children  were  trained  in 
accuracy  of  throwing  at  a  target  as  men  are  trained  to 
shoot.  In  bowling  every  child  should  be  trained  to  de- 
liver the  ball  straight  at  a  wicket.    Sides  may  be  chosen 


^w 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


139 


^nd  each  child  allowed  to  deliver  the  same  number  of 
balls  at  a  target  or  an  unguarded  wicket;  the  aim  being 
to  see  which  side  can  hit  the  wicket  most  frequently.  It 
would  be  an  advantage  to  have  children  trained  to  throw, 
bowl,  and  pitch  with  the  left  as  well  as  the  right  hand. 

The  moral  effects  of  play  are  most  important.  The 
play  of  a  boy  corresponds  to  the  work  of  a  man.  Every 
quality  that  is  requisite  in  the  man  to  make  him  com- 
pletely and  honourably  successful  is  necessary  to  com- 
plete success  in  the  plays  of  the  boy.* 

The  weakening  self-consciousness  of  childhood,  the 
most  restrictive  influence  in  a  child's  life,  is  overcome 
by  social  intercourse  on  the  playground  under  the 
stimulating  conditions  of  co-operative  effort  to  achieve 
success. 

Self-control,  positive  as  well  as  negative,  is  acquired 
by  the  independent  performance  of  the  varied  and  un- 
expected duties  incident  to  games,  which  requires  each 
player  not  only  to  restrain  but  to  direct  his  own  powers. 
Too  often  the  only  self-control  that  is  developed  in 
character  forming  is  the  restraint  of  power.  Self-di- 
rection is  the  highest  self-control. 

What  splendid  opportunities  the  boy  has  to  de- 
velop energy  of  character!  As  Froebel  says,  there  is 
no  room  for  "  indolent  indulgence  "  on  the  playground. 
The  goal  can  not  be  reached  unless  a  supreme  effort  id 


*  The  girl  should  play  quite  as  much  as  the  boy,  that  the  moth- 
ers of  each  succeeding  generation  may  become  more  physically 
perfect  both  in  body  and  brain.  Proebel's  work  is  aiding  in  over- 
coming the  foolish  conventionality  that  objects  to  allow  girls  the 
fullest  freedom  in  play.  The  same  classes  of  plays  are  suitable 
for  both  girls  and  boys  under  thirteen  years  of  age. 


1 


:1 


¥ 


If' 


I  >: 


140 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS, 


made.  The  ball  can  not  be  caught  unless  he  runs  at 
his  best  speed  and  finally  leaps  forward,  impelled  by  the 
concentrated  energy  of  his  whole  nature.  "  Every  nerve 
must  be  strained  "  to  gain  even  half  an  inch  in  jumping 
or  vaulting.  The  winning  half  inch  has  done  much 
to  mould  mighty  men.  Froebel  wisely  said:  "  A  child 
that  plays  thoroughly,  with  self-active  determination, 
perseveringly,  until  physical  fatigue  forbids,  will  surely 
be  a  thorough,  determined  man,  capable  of  self-sacrifice 
for  the  promotion  of  the  welfare  of  himself  and  others." 
Courage  is  required  in  play,  especially  in  football, 
lacrosse,  and  other  games  in  which  team  competes  con- 
tinuously against  team  for  the  possession  of  a  ball. 
There  is  no  use  for  the  coward  on  the  football  or  la- 
crosse field.  The  "  scrimmage  "  calls  for  as  much  cour- 
age as  the  field  of  battle.  Personal  fear  goes  out  of  a 
boy's  life  after  he  has  had  a  few  years'  experience  amid 
the  inspiring  struggles  incident  to  outdoor  sports.  He 
leaxns  to  think  only  of  his  predominant  aim,  and  loses 
his  personal,  weakening  self-consciousness  in  the  desire 
to  achieve  the  end  directly  in  view.  Self  is  thus  sub- 
ordinated, and  the  unconscious  subordination  of  self  in 
a  purpose  is  the  basis  of  courage.  Courage  is  not  mere 
spasmodic  daring  under  specially  trying  circumstances. 
Courage  of  the  sternest  kind  is  the  spirit  that  enables 
one  to  bear  defeat  bravely,  and  to  persevere  hopefully 
even  in  the  face  of  defeat  or  disaster.  The  boys  who 
after  defeat  practise  faithfully  to  qualify  for  future 
victory  are  developing  true  courage,  courage  based  on 
resolution  that  will  yield  to  no  defeat.  Such  courage 
lays  the  foundation  for  the  perseverance  that  "  removes 
mountains/'  and  triumphs  over  life's  fiercest  opposition. 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  PACTOE.        141 


■  m 


Self-faith  is  one  of  the  most  essential  elements  of 
strong  character.  The  playground  is  the  place  where 
teachers  can  do  most  to  develop  it  in  their  pupils.  Step 
by  step  a  boy  can  measure  his  progress  among  his  fel- 
lows and  relatively  compare  his  strength  of  to-day  with 
his  weakness  of  last  year,  and  at  each  step  in  advance 
there  comes  into  his  life  a  consciousness  of  new  power. 
He  notes  how  earnest  effort  and  persistent  practice  en- 
able him  to  achieve  victory,  and  each  new  triumph  adds 
to  his  faith  in  himself. 

One  of  the  most  essential  qualifications  for  good 
citizenship  is  reverent  submission  to  law.  The  boy's 
first  training  in  obedience  to  law  under  the  circum- 
stances of  full  citizenship  is  obtained  on  the  playground. 
There  he  is  among  his  equals,  and  the  rules  of  the  game 
are  the  laws  by  which  every  player  must  be  governed. 
The  habit  of  obedience  to  rules  in  boyhood  is  the  surest 
foundation  for  co-operative  submission  to  laws  in  man- 
hood. Plato  said:  "If  children  are  trained  to  submit 
to  laws  in  their  plays,  the  love  for  law  enters  their 
souls  with  the  music  accompanying  their  games,  never 
leaves  them,  and  helps  them  in  their  development." 
The  ancient  Greeks  had  a  clear  comprehension  of  the 
unity  between  the  body  and  the  mind,  and  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  advantages  of  physical  training. 

On  the  playground,  too,  the  boy  learns  by  experience 
the  two  greatest  lessons  of  human  responsibility  and 
relationships;  of  individuality  and  community.  The 
member  of  a  baseball  or  a  cricket  club  learns  that  each 
player  has  special  duties  belonging  to  his  position  that 
can  be  performed  by  no  other  player,  revealing  special 
power  and  special  responsibility;  that  unless  he  do^s 


iH 


i ! 


hiJIi^  i 


it 


!    ? 


11?!  J 


142 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


his  part  faithfully  and  skilfully  his  club  is  weakened; 
that  the  more  perfectly  each  individual  plays  the  more 
successful  the  club  will  be;  and  that,  however  excellent 
each  individual  may  be,  failure  must  result  unless  the 
club  as  a  whole  works  as  a  unity  with  a  single  purpose. 
In  all  his  plays  he  is  a  member  of  a  community'  in 
which  he  has  to  recognise  and  respect  the  rights  of  the 
other  members,  and  in  which  he  co-operates  with  his 
own  side  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  definite  aim. 
Thus  experience  forms  in  his  mind  apperceptive  cen- 
tres of  individuality  and  co-operation  around  which  may 
be  grouped  in  later  years  the  profoundest  philosophy 
of  individualism  and  socialism  and  their  harmonious  re- 
lationships. 

Play  and  all  methods  of  wise  physical  culture  in- 
fluence character  by  making  the  body  more  erect  and 
well-poised,  and  by  making  its  action  more  definite, 
more  forceful,  more  graceful,  and  more  free.  The  im- 
proved attitude  of  the  body  reacts  on  the  character  in 
two  ways:  The  functions  of  the  vital  organs  are  more 
fully  performed,  because  they  are  more  free,  and  char- 
acter therefore  gains  in  force;  and  the  consciousness  of 
erectness  and  poise  brings  with  it  an  added  conscious- 
ness of  self-faith,  dignity,  and  integrity.  The  body 
becomes  in  time  an  external  manifestation  of  the  char- 
acter. The  motions  of  the  arms,  the  step,  the  habitual 
attitude,  the  poise  of  the  head  reveal  to  the  experienced 
observer  the  character  behind  them.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent it  is  equally  true  that  the  body  by  its  attitudes 
and  its  modes  of  action  influences  the  mind.  Body  and 
mind  are  so  intimately  interrelated  that  the  one  neces- 
sarily reacts  oii  the  other.    Make  the  sweep  of  the  finns 


3  :   I  i: 


f  . 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.        143 


more  free  and  the  conception  of  freedom  is  widened; 
and  the  new  conception  is  registered  in  the  brain  and 
nerve  centres  by  changes  effected  in  their  development, 
their  structure,  or  their  paths  of  action  to  correspond 
with  the  new  movements  they  have  been  required  to  di- 
rect. Change  that  boy's  step  from  liis  shuffling  gait,  and 
make  a  definite,  free  step  habitual  and  you  have  helped 
to  change  his  character.  That  boy  whose  knees  bend 
weakly  as  he  stands  lacks  moral  fibre  as  well  as  physi- 
cal definiteness.  Leave  that  listless  boy  in  his  present 
condition  and  he  will  do  little  to  stir  the  world  around 
him;  but  by  the  persistent  use  of  attractive  plays  and 
other  wise  physical  culture  give  him  more  power  and 
make  energetic  motor  activity  automatic  in  his  life,  and 
he  may  leave  his  mark,  not  on  the  sands  of  time  only,  but 
on  the  everlasting  rocks  of  eternity.  In  all  cases  trans- 
formation of  bodily  attitude  or  activity  is  accompanied 
by  a  gradual  change  in  moral  quality  and  force,  which 
is  based  upon  an  improved  mental  quality  and  mental 
force  that  is  recorded  in  the  brain  and  other  parts  of 
the  neurological  system.  Thus  the  body  not  only  re- 
veals the  character  but  helps  to  form  it. 

It  is  true  that  the  spiritual  nature  controls  the  physi- 
cal, but  the  physical  nature  also  influences  the  spiritual. 
It  is  easier  for  evil  influences  to  corrupt  and  destroy  the 
character  of  young  men  with  weak,  untrained,  inactive, 
imperfect  bodies  than  it  would  be  if  they  had  vigorous, 
well-developed,  well-trained  bodies.  Paradoxical  as  it 
may  seem,  there  is  much  truth  and  force  in  Rousseau's 
epigrammatic  statement  that,  "the  weaker  the  body 
the  more  it  commands;  the  stronger  it  is  the  more  it 
obeys."    There  is  a  direct  relationship  between  moral 


•f:!i 


m 


H' 


144 


PROBBKL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


l!'"' 

H 

r :' , 

M 

V''' 

I  '4 

I'M 

^ 

ni'J 

P 

!.,.. 

I^^^rK  ^^^^K' 

flfu  '^^IK 

nil 

i^H^Hh^^^^B 

. 

Hi  w  I 

and  physical  perfection.  The  spiritual^  the  intellectual, 
and  the  physical  form  a  closely  interrelated  unity,  each 
element  of  which  affects  and  is  affected  by  the  others. 

Play  is  of  service  in  preventing  periodic  attacks  of 
lawlessness  in  children  and  young  men,  which  result 
from  overcharging  with  unused  physical  vitality.  Play 
gives  a  natural  outlet  for  the  energy,  and  increases  the 
capacity  of  the  body  for  energetic  action  without  mak- 
ing it  a  "  storage  battery."  Energy  should  be  used  as 
it  is  generated.  The  storing  of  energy  either  of  mind 
or  body  weakens  the  power  to  create  energy.  Kest  is 
needful,  but  its  benefits  result  from  the  restoration  of 
the  power  to  produce  energy  and  not  from  the  accu- 
mulation of  energy.  Unused  power  is  always  danger- 
ous, and  produces  an  evil  effect  which  is  the  opposite 
of  the  good  it  should  have  accomplished.  The  aim  of 
the  educator  should  be  to  develop  the  power  to  create 
energy  as  it  is  required  for  use.  A  playing  school  is 
easily  controlled.  Wise  teachers  use  play  or  other  forms 
of  physical  exercise  as  one  of  their  best  agencies  in  se- 
curing discipline  naturally  and  effectively.  It  is  the 
surest  and  quickest  way  to  secure  order,  system,  and  co- 
operation in  a  disorderly,  irregular,  and  indifferent 
class.  '  ' 

Play  is  better  than  gymnastics  or  any  formal  physi- 
cal exercises,  because  it  is  more  natural,  because  it  is 
true  self-activity,  because  it  is  the  child's  real  work,  be- 
cause the  benefits  derived  from  it  are  incidental  ar'^  ' 
the  direct  object  of  the  effort  made,  and  bec-Mip 
velops  the  entire  nature  of  the  child  at  the 

Play  is  natural.  The  universal  tendent  of  he  ithy 
children  is  to  play,  and  this  love  for  play  was  ejiven 


♦' 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


145 


because  energetic  effort  is  essential  to  tlie  fullest  <,'n)\vlh 
of  a  human  being,  not  only  physically,  but  intellectually 
and  morally. 

Play  is  true  self-activity,  because  the  child's  actions 
in  playing  are  the  result  of  its  own  decisions  in  response 
to  its  own  motives  for  the  accomplishment  of  definite 
purposes  in  connection  with  the  game,  and  not  in  re- 
sponse to  the  teacher's  command  or  signal. 

Play  is  the  child's  real  work.  Some  educators  hesi- 
tate to  admit  the  wisdom  of  a  system  of  education  which 
makes  play  an  important  element  in  the  child's  develop- 
ment even  in  its  early  years,  fearing  that  the  love  of 
play  may  prevent  the  love  of  work  afterward.  But 
play  is  the  real  work  of  childhood,  and  the  love  of  play 
in  the  child  should  become  the  love  of  work  in  the 
man.  Every  characteristic  of  excellence  in  playing — 
quickness,  alertness,  enthusiasm,  persistence,  energy, 
and  independence — is  a  characteristic  of  a  good  worker 
at  maturity. 

Play  is  the  only  complete  means  of  self-expression 
the  child  possesses.  It  is  the  agency  by  which  it  defines 
and  strengthens  its  powers  and  learns  to  use  them  in- 
telligently as  a  self-directing,  self-revealing  being  in  the 
accomplishment  of  its  own  aims.  Active  physical  play 
is  but  one  depa^ment  of  the  child's  play  life.  It  very 
early  shows  :*  tendency  to  play  with  the  material  things 
around  it.  It  is  filled  with  a  passionate  desire  to  modify 
the  conditions  of  things.  Unfortunately,  most  of  us 
lose  this  aggressive  attitude  which  is  the  foundation  of 
all  progress  as  we  grow  older,  and  passively  accept  con- 
ventional conditions  as  we  find  them.  The  very  same 
tendency  that  too  often  makes  a  child  destructive  in  its 


wii< 


I . 


m ! 


-Ml 


146 


FROEBEL'g  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


■>•    ! 


Wu 


ll.fi 


mi     -5'  • 


]l 


U-r  f  n> 


pj:«y  should  make  it  constructive  and  self-reliant.  Play 
with  material  things  is  the  highest  possible  means  for 
making  an  original  and  intelligent  worker,  and  outdoor 
games  and  sports  are  the  best  agencies  for  developing 
physical  power  and  the  concentration  of  energy  for  the 
achievement  of  clearly  defined  purposes. 

The  benefits  of  play  are  incidental.  This  is  a  most 
important  advantage.  Incidental  results  are  most  last- 
ing in  all  educational  work.  The  unconscious  tuition  of 
life  and  school  is  the  best.  The  teacher  whose  ideal  is 
highest  and  whose  art  is  most  perfect  values  least  the 
direct  results  of  his  teaching.  The  man  who  takes  exer- 
cise for  the  benefit  of  his  health  never  improves  so 
much  as  the  man  who  takes  the  same  exercise  for  some 
other  purpose.  The  old-fashioned  doctor  said  to  his 
patient,  whose  system  needed  the  toning  of  invigorat- 
ing exercise,  "  Take  a  walk  of  four  miles  every  morn- 
ing before  breakfast "  ;  or  "  Ride  for  an  hour  every 
morning  "  ;  or  "  Buy  a  pair  of  clubs  and  swing  them." 
The  wise  physician  learns  the  tendencies  of  his  patient 
and  gets  him  interested  in  some  work  or  game  which 
involves  the  necessary  exercise  in  the  accomplishment 
of  some  ardent  desire.  lie  leads  him  to  take  an  inter- 
est in  gardening,  or  botanizing,  or  boating,  or  lacrosse, 
or  tennis,  or  baseball,  or  cricket,  or  curling,  or  skating, 
or  cycling,  for  the  interest  or  pleas"  "e  connected  with 
the  work  or  the  game.  Yonder  are  two  men  walking  to- 
ward a  high  hill.  One  is  a  dyspeptic  ordered  by  his 
doctor  to  take  exercise  for  his  health,  the  other  is  on  his 
way  to  visit  the  woman  of  his  choice.  The  glories  of 
the  hour  in  sky,  meadow,  bird  song,  flower,  and  land- 
scape unconsciously  fill  the  soul  of  one  with  irritation 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.         I47 


and  the  other  with  exhilaration.  The  first  on  reaching 
the  foot  of  the  hill  looks  despairingly  up,  and  turns 
back  with  the  feeling  that  he  is  too  weak  to  climb  the 
hill  to-day,  thus  losing  the  part  of  the  walk  that  would 
have  done  him  most  good.  The  second  goes  bounding 
up  the  hill  confident  that  just  beyond  its  brow  she  who 
is  all  of  life  to  him  will  be  watching  for  him,  and  wait- 
ing io  welcome  him.  To  the  first  the  physical  exercise 
of  walking  is  drudgery;  to  the  second  it  means  joy  and 
life. 

But  the  highest  educational  value  of  play  rests  on 
its  influence  in  developing  the  selfhood  of  the  child,  and 
on  its  beneficial  effects  in  the  training  of  the  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  natures. 

Froebel  regarded  play  as  the  child's  natural  prepara- 
tion for  work  in  maturity;  as  its  best  means  for  develop- 
ing its  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  powers;  as  its 
chief  source  of  joy;  as  its  highest  means  of  self-expres- 
sion and  self -revelation;  as  a  safeguard  against  the  in- 
dulgence of  destructive  desires  and  mere  sensual  pleas- 
ures. He  considered  play  a  kind  of  religious  exercise  for 
children.  A  lady  who  was  visiting  his  kindergarten  said 
after  seeing  the  children  at  their  play:  "It  seems  as  if 
I  were  in  church,  it  sounds  so  devotional."  Froebel  re- 
plied: "  That  is  the  uniting  power  of  play,  which  blesses 
and  exalts  children  and  even  grown-up  people."  Mxdden- 
dorfl,  one  of  his  life-long  associates,  and  the  man  who 
was  most  fully  in  sympathy  with  him,  caught  his  rev- 
erent spirit  in  regard  to  play,  when  he  said:  "This  is 
like  a  fresh  bath  for  the  human  soul  when  we  dare  to  be 
children  again  with  children." 

The  plays  of  childhood  satisfy  two  desires  of  al} 
11 


ii 


148 


FBOEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


It* 


m 


ii '. .  iM 


:iW 


healthy  children — the  longing  for  activity  and  for  joy. 
Activity  and  joy  are  very  important  elements  in  true 
religion.  Perfect  soul  growth  in  childhood  is  the  only 
Bure  foundation  for  perfect  soul  development  in  ma- 
turity,  and  the  child  soul  gains  strength  chiefly  through 
joyous  activity,  therefore  Froebel  longed  to  increase  the 
play  sphere  of  childhood,  and  give  ail  children  the  full- 
est opportunities  for  the  joy,  the  activity,  the  self-ex- 
pression, the  mind  culture,  and  the  moral  development 
of  play. 

The  influence  of  Froebel's  course  in  making  play  a 
part  of  his  educational  system  has  been  felt  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  The  German  people  have  been 
convinced  that  formal  physical  culture  in  school  and 
gymnasiums  will  not  develop  a  strong  and  enduring 
race.  The  greatest  educational  advance  made  in  Ger- 
many during  the  closing  decade  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  the  movement  conducted  by  the  educational  de- 
partment of  Prussia  in  favour  of  public  playgrounds. 
Froebel's  educational  play  system  is  producing  a  deep 
impression  in  his  native  land.  It  has  made  the  Prussian 
Government  do  what  Dr.  Wiese,  in  his  German  Letters 
on  English  Education,  published  in  1877,  declared  to  be 
quite  impracticable.  In  speaking  of  English  school- 
boys he  said:  "  Most  of  them,  with  the  fresh  colour  of 
health  on  their  countenances,  their  bright  eyes,  firm 
gait,  without  a  trace  of  constrained  behaviour,  were 
to  me  often  a  refreshing  picture  of  blooming  youth.*' 
He  proceeds  to  depmbe  the  causes  that  have  produced 
such  a  grand  rf  It,  and  says:  "  As  among  these  causes, 
physical  exercises  and  games,  such  as  cricket  and  oth- 
ers, which  aim  at  adroitness  and  strength  of  body,  oc- 


PLAT  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


149 


cupy  a  prominent  place  among  the  customary  means 
of  education,  one  might  perhaps  think  of  transplanting 
such  things  into  Germany.  The  wish  that  this  might 
he  done  has  been  expressed  to  me  during  my  present 
stay  in  England  by  Germans  who  were  able  to  compare 
the  two  countries  in  regard  to  the  physical  training  of 
youth;  and,  in  fact,  German  teachers  have  repeatedly 
agreed  to  study  these  games  in  England  in  order  to  in- 
troduce them  among  themselves.  The  attempts  have 
been  made  in  vain.  The  conditions  of  life  are  too  differ- 
ent in  the  two  countries,  and  we  shall  never  be  able  to 
make  up  our  minds  to  devote  as  much  of  the  time  of  our 
school  hours  as  seems  requisite  for  games  which,  after 
all,  would  not  be  a  proper  substitute  for  gymnastic 
exercises." 

Dr.  Wiese  made  two  mistakes.  He  ventured  to  re- 
strict the  development  of  the  future.  He  asserted  that 
the  Germans  "  would  never  make  up  their  minds  to  de- 
vote much  time  to  games  " ;  and  in  fourteen  years  the 
Germans  did  exactly  what  he  said  they  never  would  do. 
The  grandest  achievements  of  the  race  are  those  that 
have  been  proved  impossible.  He  erred  also  in  assuming 
that  games  should  be  considered  a  substitute  for  gym- 
nastic exercises.  The  one  should  be  the  complement  of 
the  other;  neither  can  be  a  substitute  for  the  other. 
The  leaders  in  athletic  sports  are  usually  most  active  in 
gymnastic  practices.  The  general  introduction  of  playl 
into  Germany  has  increased  the  attendance  in  the  gym- 
nasiums. 

Outside  of  Germany  play  education  has  awakened  a 
deeper  interest  in  physical  education  and  broadened 
educational  ideals  generally.     It  has  aided  especially 


I 


m 


^ 


im^ 

w 

:M 

^■^Hk 

150 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


in  the  comprehension  of  the  interrelated  unity  of  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  natures,  and  this  is 
revealing  two  great  principles.  First,  the  threefold  na- 
ture should  be  trained  as  a  unity,  as  no  department  can 
reach  its  fullest  perfection  without  the  adequate  devel- 
opment of  the  other  two.  Second,  the  weakest  depart- 
ment of  a  child's  nature  requires  most  careful  training 
and  nurture.  This  is  especially  true  when  the  physical 
nature  is  weakest.  Dickens  taught  the  world  many  edu- 
cational lessons  in  his  own  inimitable  way.  One  of  the 
most  valuable  of  these  was  the  lesson  taught  by  the  dis- 
astrous results  that  followed  the  irrational  cramming  of 
Paul  Dombey.  Paul  was  killed  by  his  father  and  Dr. 
Blimber.  His  aunt,  Mrs.  Chick,  told  his  father  that 
"  Our  darling  is  not  altogether  so  strong  as  we  could 
wish.  The  fact  is,  his  mind  is  too  much  for  him.  His 
soul  is  a  great  deal  too  large  for  his  frame."  Notwith- 
standing these  facts  Mr.  Dombey  took  Paul  to  Dr. 
Blimber's  school  and  gave  instructions  that  he  was  to 
learn  "  everything."  Dr.  Blimber  accepted  the  com- 
mission, ordered  Miss  Cornelia  "  to  bring  Dombey  on," 
and  his  mind  and  spirit,  already  too  strong  for  his  weak 
body,  were  strained  to  their  utmost  limit.  His  feeble, 
overtaxed  body  soon  yielded  to  the  strain,  and  his  prema- 
ture death  resulted  from  the  ambition  of  his  father  and 
the  ignorance  of  his  highly  learned  teacher.  Learned 
he  was  in  the  "deceased  languages,"  but  completely 
ignorant  of  the  most  important  educational  principle, 
that  the  human  being  is  an  organic  unity  of  interde- 
pendent elements.  Paul's  mind  and  spirit  were  rela- 
tively too  active  for  hit  body,  yet  no  attempt  was  made 
to  develop  his  body.    The  departments  of  power  already 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR. 


151 


too  active  were  wrought  at  high  pressure;  the  weakest 
department  was  utterly  neglected  and  robbed  of  its 
share  of  nutrition  by  keeping  the  brain  in  an  abnormal- 
ly active  condition,  while  the  body  had  no  opportunity 
for  the  increasingly  energetic  exercise  so  essential  for  its 
proper  development.  The  law  to  determine  the  amount 
of  special  culture  for  the  individual  elements  of  power  in 
human  character  should  be:  give  most  careful  culture  to 
the  weakest  element. 

There  is  an  inviting  field  for  teachers  in  the  work  of 
improving  the  plays  of  children.  The  best  teachers 
and  the  wisest  physicians  and  neurologists  will  yet  de- 
vise new  games  to  accomplish  specific  aims  in  the  devel- 
opment of  childhood.  So  important  an  agency  in  the 
evolution  of  the  race  should  not  be  left  to  chance.  Froe- 
bel's  organization  of  children's  plays  was  the  work  of  a 
master  genius.  With  wondrous  skill  he  arranged  a 
comprehensive  system  of  games  that  call  into  play  the 
physical  and  mental  powers,  strengthening,  defining, 
and  co-ordinating  them;  that  give  the  child  the  first 
steps  in  manual  training,  and  the  control  of  the  mate- 
rial world  for  the  purposes  of  utility  and  beauty;  that 
reveal  the  family  and  social  relationships  in  the  home 
and  society;  that  awaken  a  sympathetic  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  labourers  in  the  industrial  world;  that  de- 
velop the  child's  energy,  courage,  self-faith,  and  execu- 
tive power;  that  make  him  conscious  of  individual 
power  which  he  delights  to  use  creatively,  and  which, 
he  also  learns  through  play,  is  given  to  him  that  he 
may  use  it  to  make  the  organic  unity  of  the  race  more 
perfect;  that  appeal  to  the  aesthetic  nature  by  the  pro- 
duction of  beautiful  forms  and  by  the  accompaniment  of 


lii' 
ill 


.  Trl 


152 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


II! 


music  in  time  with  which  the  games  are  played;  that  in- 
troduce the  child  to  Nature  and  through  Nature  to  the 
unseen  forces  behind  and  within  Nature;  and  that  sym- 
bolize the  work  of  a  perfect  life.  Yet,  perfect  as  Froe- 
bel's  system  of  plays  already  is,  there  is  a  need  for  an 
evolution  in  games  in  connection  with  actual  school 
work,  and  under  the  direct  control  of  teachers  and  peda- 
gogical neurologists  after  school  hours.  In  some  re- 
spects the  most  remarkable  evolution  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion is  the  enormous  increase  in  the  percentage  of  the 
population  of  civilized  countries  who  reside  in  cities. 
The  children  of  the  cities  lack  many  of  the  opportunities 
for  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  growth  enjoyed  by 
the  children  of  the  country.  One  of  the  greatest  needs 
of  city  children  is  opportunity  for  free,  energetic  play- 
ing. Scientific,  educational.  Christian  philanthropy  has 
no  better  field  of  operation  than  in  providing  ample 
playgrounds  in  cities,  and  in  equipping  them  with  the 
necessary  materials  for  playing  the  most  developing 
games.  The  child  of  the  fourth  generation  brought  up 
in  a  large  city  is  a  pathetic  study.  It  is  one  of  the 
saddest  sights  in  the  world,  because  it  is  almost  with- 
out the  instinct  of  play.  Slavery  left  behind  it  the  evi- 
dence of  its  terrible  nature  in  a  race  of  children  who 
do  tiOt  know  how  to  play,  from  whom  the  tendency  to 
play  has  been  almost  eliminated.  Rev.  William  Gillies, 
the  veteran  educator  of  Jamaica,  reports  that  "  one  of 
the  greatest  difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  the  physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  evolution  of  the  negro  race  in 
Jamaica  is  the  fact  that  the  children  have  lost  the 
play  spirit."  This  is  a  most  interesting  and  suggestive 
fact  to  teacheiB. 


PLAY  AS  AN  EDUCATIONAL  FACTOR.        153 


The  recent  German  playground  movement  should 
become  universal.  Froebel's  appeal  to  fathers  and 
mothers  may  be  adopted  with  profit  by  the  teachers  and 
philanthropists  of  the  world:  "  Play  is  not  trivial;  it  is 
highly  serious  and  of  deep  significance.  Cultivate  and 
foster  it,  0  mother;  protect  and  guide  it,  0  father!  To 
the  calm,  keen  vision  of  one  who  truly  knows  human 
nature,  the  spontaneous  play  of  the  child  discloses  the 
future  inner  life  of  the  man."    As  Schiller  said: 

"  Deep  meaning  oft  lies  hid  in  childish  play." 


'.     i 


11 
I 


!  J 


I 


ri'ti 


i.     f. 


lit 


It  r  -*  ^ 

if* 
.   t   1    " 

M  'i  ^ 


m 


CHAPTER  VI. 

raB  HAKMONY  BETWEEN  CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 

As  FroebePs  fundamental  law  is  unity,  and  his  fun- 
damental process  is  self-activity,  so  his  fundamental 
principle  in  discipline  is  the  harmony  between  control 
and  spontaneity.  This  principle  is  based  on  his  law  of 
harmony  of  opposites. 

Dr.  Harris  says:  "  Careful  students  of  the  history  of 
education  have  noticed  the  fact  that  its  reforms  swing 
from  extreme  to  extreme.  At  one  time  it  will  become 
the  fashion  to  lay  great  stress  on  the  training  of  the  will. 
Schools  will  accordingly  become  places  where  children 
are  submitted  to  semi-mechanical  processes  of  discipline 
to  the  neglect  of  individual  insight  and  ability  to  think. 
Gradually  the  pendulum  will  swing  to  the  other  extreme, 
and  discipline  will  be  neglected  for  the  intellectual  self- 
activity  of  the  pupils. 

"The  intellect  grows  by  mastering  for  itself  the 
thoughts  of  others,  and  by  investigating  causes  and  prin- 
ciples. But  the  will  grows  through  self-sacrifice  for  the 
sake  of  wider  and  wider  interests.  It  is  possible,  there- 
fore, to  have  two  lines  of  educational  reform  antagonis- 
tic each  to  the  other." 

Froebel  was  the  first  educator  to  see  the  perfect  unity 

154 


^ 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


155 


r. 

i- 
il 

t 


between  these  two  lines  of  educational  reform,  and  to  har- 
monize control  and  spontaneity,  direction  and  freedom. 
In  doing  so  he  claimed  to  secure  more  perfect  development 
of  both  than  had  been  achieved  before.  He  saw  the  tend- 
ency "  to  swing  from  extreme  to  extreme,"  and  he  knew 
that  it  was  caused  by  the  principle  of  separation  or  atom- 
ism, or  extreme  individualization.  With  wider  intel- 
lectual vision  he  discovered  the  law  of  unity,  and  saw 
the  philosophical  oneness  of  apparent  opposites. 

Froebel's  views  on  this  question  may  be  gathered 
from  the  following  extracts  from  his  writings: 

'*  Education  in  training  and  in  all  instruction  should 
be  by  far  more  passive  and  following  than  categorical  and 
prescriptive;  for,  by  the  full  application  of  the  latter 
mode  of  education,  we  should  wholly  lose  the  pure,  the 
sure,  and  steady  progressive  development  of  mankind — 
i.  e.,  the  free  and  spontaneous  representation  of  the  di- 
vine in  man,  and  through  the  life  of  man,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  the  ultimate  aim  and  object  of  all  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  the  ultimate  destiny  of  man." 

"  In  accordance  with  the  laws  of  Divine  influence, 
and  in  view  of  the  original  soundness  and  wholeness  of 
man,  all  arbitrary  (active),  prescriptive,  and  categorical, 
interfering  education  in  the  forms  of  instruction  and 
training  must  of  necessity  annihilate,  hinder,  and  de- 
stroy." 

"  Therefore  education  as  instruction  and  training, 
originally  and  in  its  first  principles  should  necessarily  be 
passive,  following  (only  guarding  and  protecting),  not 
prescriptive,  categorical,  or  interfering." 

The  words  "  passive  "  and  "  following  "  in  the  pre- 
ceding quotations  refer  to  the  teacher,  not  to  the  child. 


u 


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It 


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156 


FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


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^    > 

'J , 

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5' 


The  child  should  be  the  active  agent  in  its  own  educa- 
tion. Froebel  had  such  unbounded  faith  in  the  right 
tendency  of  humanity,  and  such  abhorrence  of  the  idea 
of  the  **  total  depravity  "  of  childhood,  that  he  taught 
in  all  his  works  that  the  teacher's  duty  is  to  place  the 
child  in  proper  conditions,  and  supply  it  with  material 
adapted  to  its  stage  of  development.  Having  done  these 
things,  he  should  reverently  "  stand  from  between  the 
child  and  God,"  and  watch  it  grow,  using  his  developed 
wisdom  to  study  each  individual  child  and  adapt  spe- 
cial conditions  to  guard  it  from  evil  and  stimulate  its 
best  and  fullest  growth.  These  quotations  relate  to  the 
training  of  children  whose  inner  life  is  not  warped.  He 
knew  that  conditions  must  be  met  as  they  exist.  He  saw 
the  possibility  of  the  need  of  prescription,  but  taught 
that  "  all  prescription  should  be  adapted  to  the  pupil's 
nature  and  needs,  and  should  secure  his  co-operation. 
This  is  the  case  when  all  education  in  instruction  and 
training,  in  spite  of  its  necessarily  categorical  charac- 
ter, bears  in  all  details  and  ramifications  the  irrefutable 
at'd  irresistible  impress  that  the  one  who  makes  the  de- 
mand is  himself  strictly  and  unavoidably  subject  to  an 
eternally  ruling  law,  to  an  unavoidable  eternal  neces- 
sity, and  that,  therefore,  all  despotism  is  banished." 

"  Between  educator  and  pupil,  between  request  and 
obedience,  there  should  invisibly  rule  a  third  something 
to  which  educator  and  pupil  are  equally  subject.  This 
third  something  is  the  right,  the  best,  necessarily  condi- 
tioned and  expressed  without  arbitrariness  in  the  cir- 
cumstances. The  calm  recognition,  the  clear  knowledge, 
and  the  serene,  cheerful  obedience  to  the  rule  of  this 
third  something  is  the  particular  feattire  that  should 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


157 


be  constantly  and  clearly  manifest  in  the  bearing  and 
the  conduct  of  the  educator  and  teacher,  and  often 
firmly  and  sternly  emphasized  by  him." 

The  fact  that  he  recognises  the  need  of  categorical 
teaching  and  training,  and  the  firm  and  stern  emphasis 
of  justice,  does  not  contradict  the  theory  previously 
quoted,  which  presents  the  ideal  education  for  children 
without  defined  evil  in  their  natures. 

''The  kindergarten  is  the  free  republic  of  child- 
hood." 

"  The  aim  of  my  kindergarten  is  to  prevent  the  chil- 
dren of  the  masses  from  growing  up  like  little  savages, 
and  also  to  save  the  schools  from  a  lawlessness  which  is 
miscalled  liberty." 

''  If  national  order  is  to  be  recognised  in  later  years 
as  a  benefit,  childhood  must  first  be  accustomed  to  law 
and  order,  and  therein  find  the  means  of  freedom" 

His  great  interpreter,  the  Baroness  von  Marenholz- 
Biilow,  brings  out  prominently  this  phase  of  his  teach- 
ing.   She  says: 

"  Nothing  is  left,  then,  but  to  set  free  obedience  in 
the  place  of  blind  obedience,  and  to  render  the  masses 
through  cultivation  capable  of  seeing  that  only  the  self- 
restraint  of  individuals  and  their  voluntary  subjection  to 
law  make  greater  freedom  in  society  possible.  That 
mode  of  education  which  can  solve  this  problem  may 
justly  be  called  education  for  freedom." 

"  Certainly  the  application  of  a  given  rule  or  law 
must,  by  the  formative  and  creative  productiveness  of 
the  kindergarten  pupils,  awaken  their  sense  of  law  and 
order,  and  call  forth  the  beginning  of  an  opposition  to 
all  disorderly  and  anarchical  action.*' 


.' 


I!    -n 


;i' 


ii 


iii 


i 


158 


FROKBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


! 


u 


in' 

i '  ' 


i 


itii .«/  ■ 


\M 


'*  Froebers  system  aims  to  smooth  the  path  for  the 
future  free  and  conscious  obedience  to  law,  and  thereby 
lead  at  the  same  time  to  the  highest  possible  degree  of 
freedom. 

''  By  means  of  kindergartens  a  place  of  education  is 
created  which  represents  a  miniature  state  for  children, 
in  which  the  young  citizen  can  learn  to  move  freely,  but 
with  consideration  for  his  little  fellows." 

The  aim  of  Froebel  was  to  make  the  school  the  ''  free 
republic  of  childhood,"  in  which  the  child  should  be  a 
self-active  agent,  guided  by  a  teacher  wise  enough  to 
direct  it  without  making  it  conscious  of  interference, 
and  to  place  it  in  conditions  to  define  its  recognition 
of  law,  and  at  the  same  time  give  ample  scope  for  its 
originality.  There  may  be  life  under  law  or  deadness 
under  law.  Froebel  wished  to  have  law  always  and 
everywhere,  but  with  it  he  demanded  the  right  of  the 
child  to  free  life,  positiveness,  and  self-direction,  instead 
of  coercion,  negativeness,  and  mechanical  following.  He 
reverenced  the  individuality  of  the  child,  and  he  knew 
that  spontaneity  was  the  only  perfect  basis  for  the 
growth  of  individuality;  he  aimed  to  give  individuality 
the  power  of  self-direction,  and  therefore  he  insisted 
upon  freedom  of  will  action  as  the  only  foundation  for 
the  growth  of  the  will;  but  he  recognised  the  universal- 
ity of  law,  and  he  made  it  the  duty  of  the  trainers  of 
childhood  to  reveal  law  in  its  beneficence,  and  not  in  its 
enslavement.  Like  every  good,  law  may  be  a  blessing  or 
an  evil.  Froebel  aimed  to  make  law  aid  in  developing 
constructiveness  instead  of  destructiveness;  in  guiding, 
not  merely  in  restraining.  The  coercive  teacher  or  par- 
ent recognises  only  the  restrictiveness  of  law.    That  ia 


It 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


159 


its  dark  side.  The  highest  art  of  the  teacher  may  be 
shown  in  reveahng  "the  perfect  law  of  liberty";  in 
guiding  the  child  through  its  years  of  weakness  to  com- 
plete self-control,  so  that  no  step  may  interfere  with  the 
development  of  selfhood,  and  yet  every  step  lead  to  a 
consciousness  of  law.  The  outer  control  should  grad- 
ually vanish  as  the  inner  develops. 

The  Scotch  lad  is  usually  controlled  by  his  father's 
iron  will.  His  duty  in  childhood  and  youth  is  unreason- 
ing submission  to  law.  There  is  power  even  in  such  dis- 
cipline. In  the  boy's  soul  dread  of  parental  authority 
becomes  in  time  a  solemn  veneration  for  the  majesty 
of  law;  and  reverent  submission  to  the  human  father 
rises  into  devout  subordination  to  God,  and  forms  the 
granite  in  Scotch  character  individually  and  nationally. 
Such  training  makes  men  strong,  but  narrow.  It  places 
law  above  liberty,  and  recognises  the  power  of  the  Cre- 
ator more  than  his  love.  It  values  individual  rights 
more  than  individual  growth.  This  is  control  with- 
out spontaneity. 

In  too  many  homes  there  is  spontaneity  without 
control.  The  results  are  usually  disastrous.  Control 
alone  is  better  than  spontaneity  alone  for  perfecting 
strength  of  character;  better  even  for  the  development 
of  productive  spontaneity.  Uncontrolled  spontaneity 
would  be  the  ideal  educational  condition  if  all  natural 
tendencies  were  toward  truth,  or  if  all  children  had 
from  their  earliest  years  enlightened  consciences,  devel- 
oped wills,  and  a  recognition  of  the  rights  of  others  so 
clear  as  to  make  them  unselfish,  and  so  strong  as  to  be  a 
controlling  force  in  their  lives. 

Control  and  spontaneity  have  been  regarded  as  an- 


' 


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f  1  i  '    ■     If  1 1 

!■  *    ■    I' 


|.;:, 


160 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tagonistic  forces  in  the  development  of  the  child.  They 
are  really  twin  powers  that  should  work  in  harmony. 
Truth  can  never  be  at  variance  with  other  truth.  There 
are  no  irreconcilable  contradictions,  no  chasms  that 
clearer  insight  shall  not  span.  Man  can  not  always  see 
the  harmony  between  principles  that  appear  to  be  in  con- 
flict, but  infinite  wisdom  sees  the  mutually  strengthen- 
ing interrelationship  of  apparent  contradictions.  Na- 
ture rejoices  in  the  equipoise  of  opposing  forces.  As 
man  grows  consciously  toward  the  Divine,  he  sees  har- 
monies more  clearly,  and  the  revelation  of  new  har- 
monies between  the  controlling  laws  of  the  universe 
makes  the  sweetest  music  that  ever  lifts  his  soul  to  higher 
jov.  \fter  the  battles  of  past  ages,  the  veterans  who 
fought  for  opposing  principles  have  joined  hands  in  lov- 
ing unity,  when  they  have  climbed  through  the  clouds 
of  error,  and  clearer,  wider  vision  has  dispelled  illusions 
and  shown  the  essent'al  oneness  of  truths  which  partial 
insight  had  supposed  to  be  at  variance.  Each  party  saw 
a  single  truth,  and  in  the  brighter  light  on  the  hilltop 
the  two  truths  were  blended  into  one. 

Rightly  undeiitood,  control  and  spontaneity  work  in 
perfect  harmony.  Spontaneity  does  not  mean  freedom 
from  law,  but  freedom  through  law,  in  accord  with  law. 
Productive  spontaneity  can  not  be  at  variance  witli  law; 
it  can  exist  only  in  conformity  with  law.  Law  and  lib- 
erty are  indissoluble.  They  are  giants  whose  union  pro- 
duces life  and  growth.  The  "  law  of  liberty  "  is  the  per- 
fect law.  David  spoke  wisely  when  he  said:  "  So  shall 
I  keep  thy  law  continually  for  ever  and  ever,  and  I  will 
walk  at  liberty."  "  To  the  truly  free  mac,  freedom  co- 
incides with  control."    Spontaneity  is  th"  essential  con- 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


161 


dition  of  individual  development;  law  defines  relation- 
ship of  the  individual  to  the  universal;  control  is  the 
application  of  law.  There  is  no  wrong  to  the  child  in 
the  exercise  of  wise  control  by  parents  and  teachers. 
Such  control  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  full  develop- 
ment of  character.  We  should  control  childhood  in 
order  to  define  respect  for  human  law  and  reverence  for 
Divine  law.  The  perfect  work  of  Christianity  will  be 
accomplished  when  all  mankind  is  consciously,  rever- 
ently, responsively,  co-operatively  submissive  to  the 
Divine  will.  This  condition  can  never  be  reached  until 
the  child  in  the  home  and  in  the  school  lives  a  life  of 
co-operative  obedience  to  its  parents  and  teachers,  and  is 
thus  qualified  for  conscious  co-operative  submission  to 
the  authority  of  the  state,  and  beyond  this  to  a  cheerful 
recognition  of  Divine  authority  and  the  progress  result- 
ing from  coworking  with  God. 

Children  should  be  controlled  because  wise  and  defi- 
nite control  by  a  superior  will  develops  the  will  power  of 
the  child,  and  qualifies  it  to  direct  its  own  life  when  it 
reaches  maturity.  If  unchecked,  the  feelings  and  pas- 
sions of  a  child  sweep  in  an  unrestrained  torrent  over 
its  undeveloped  will;  lack  of  control  becomes  habitual; 
selfishness  and  self-will  act  automatically,  and  character 
power  is  lost.  More  than  half  the  energy  of  humanity 
is  dissipated.  Character  energy  must  be  controlled  and 
directed  by  an  enlightened  will  in  ordor  to  become  an 
executive  force  for  good.  The  child's  will  is  neither  suf- 
ficiently strong  nor  sufficiently  enlightened  to  guide  its 
activities  and  control  its  powers.  Uncontrolled  forces 
lead  inevitably  to  ruin  and  disaster.  It  is  a  lamentable 
fact  that  so  much  of  Nature's  physical  force  remains 


!l 


If 

i  ! 


162 


FROBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


yet  unmastered;  but  the  saddest  sight  in  the  world  is  an 
uncontrolled  soul. 

But,  while  control  by  a  superior  will  is  essential  and 
natural,  it  should  never  prevent  the  full  development 
of  spontaneity  of  character.  It  is  not  necessary  to  dwarf 
a  soul  by  controlling  it.  The  child's  individuality  can 
not  be  weakened  without  fatal  consequences.  Each 
child  has  an  individuality  of  its  own.  It  is  a  sacred  power 
intended  to  grow  for  ever.  It  is  the  divine  in  the  child. 
It  can  not  be  marred  or  misdirected  without  interfering 
with  God's  plan.  God's  will  is  never  a  substitute  for 
man's  will;  neither  should  the  will  of  the  teacher  be  in 
any  way  a  substitute  for  the  will  of  the  child.  The 
teacher's  will  may  direct  the  child's  will,  but  never  safely 
act  in  its  stead.  The  teacher's  personality  should  never 
intervene  between  the  child  and  the  light 

To  be  truly  beneficent,  external  control  must  stimu- 
late as  well  as  restrict.  It  should  be  exercised  with  a 
constant  consciousness  of  the  child's  selfhood,  and  in 
harmony  with  several  clearly  defined  laws. 

Control  by  external  agencies  should  last  for  the  short- 
est possible  time.  Self-direction  should  be  our  aim  for 
our  pupils  from  the  first. 

Human  control,  like  Divine  control,  should  be 
prompted  by  love,  based  on  love,  and  exercised  in  love. 
Human  love  is  man's  strongest  controlling  force,  as  well 
as  his  greatest  life-giving  power.  Divine  law  is  often 
necessarily  restrictive  of  wrong,  but  it  is  lovingly  re- 
strictive. It  is  stimulating  and  growth-giving;  never 
destructive. 

Control  should  never  degenerate  into  coercion.  Plato 
said,  "  A  free  mind  ought  to  learn  nothing  as  a  slave." 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


163 


m 


There  is  no  life-giving  power  in  coercion.  There  is  no 
growth  in  mere  negation.  God  meant  our  characters  to 
be  positive,  not  negative.  One  "  do  "  is  worth  a  thou- 
sand "  don'ts  "  in  the  destruction  of  evil  or  the  produc- 
tion of  good.  Coercion  may  repress  evil;  it  never  eradi- 
cates it.  It  can  only  repress  the  wrong  for  a  limited 
time,  and  in  doing  so  it  restricts  the  good.  Coercion 
never  made  a  child  creative,  and  the  growth  of  crea- 
tive power  is  the  central  element  in  its  education.  Co- 
ercion does  more  than  restrict  the  power  of  a  child; 
it  corrupts  its  ideal.  The  common  and  unnatural 
dread  of  Divine  authority  arises  from  the  degradation 
of  human  authority  into  unreasoning,  unloving  coer- 
cion. 

The  terrorism  of  tlie  unknown  is  the  most  dreadful 
form  of  coercion.  Attempts  to  secure  passive  submission 
by  threats  of  punishment  by  the  mysterious  interference 
of  imaginary  monsters  have  done  as  much  as  any  other 
cause  to  destroy  the  true  spontaneity  of  childhood.  It 
is  impossible  to  conceive  the  fulness  of  the  evil  infl  •• 
enc;;  of  such  threats  at  a  time  wlien  the  child's  imagina- 
tion is  most  active.  The  imagination  itself  is  perverted, 
and  often  becomes  a  corrupting  instead  of  a  purifying 
power.  The  child's  activity  becomes  passivity;  its  in- 
stinctive interest  in  the  great  unknown  dies  out,  and  its 
spiritual  development  is  thus  prevented.  T\w  unknown 
land  should  be  filled  with  angels,  not  demons.  Many 
parents  and  teachers  degrade  even  the  Fatlior  of  light 
and  love  into  a  sort  of  goblin  to  terrorize  their  children. 
With  sacrilegious  impudence  they  dare  to  sny  to  chil- 
dren, "  God  won't  love  you  if  you  are  bnd."  till  the  child 

gets  its  little  heart  filled  wiJi  misconceptions  of  God  and 
12 


i.  '< 


164 


FBOEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


r'  ■  i   !■ 


!  r.  ,  J.J 


irreverence  for  him,  and  these  false  ideals  often  keep  out 
the  truth  for  ever. 

The  child  should  not  he  conscious  of  the  restraint 
of  external  control  through  the  personality  of  the  teach- 
er. The  assertion  of  the  personal  will  of  the  teacher  in- 
evitably leads  to  conflict  and  conscious  resistance  on  the 
part  of  the  child.  This  is  the  root  of  great  evil.  Through 
unconscious  responsiveness  the  child  should  grow  to  con- 
scious recognition  of  authority  and  obedience  to  law; 
and  up  to  the  highest  condition  of  will  culture,  perfect 
self-control,  and  self-direction.  The  Divine  will  guides 
our  wills  in  many  ways  that  we  do  not  understand  or 
even  recognise.  Our  control  of  childhood  should  be  like 
Divine  control  in  this  respect. 

External  control  that  reveals  its  personality  inevita- 
bly weakens  the  child's  self-control,  as  external  aid  given 
unwisely  necessarily  destroys  its  self-reliance.  Most 
children  are  injured  by  being  helped  too  much.  The 
child  whose  foolishly  fond  mother  rushes  to  pick  it  up 
when  it  falls  is  usually  hurt  more  by  the  picking  up  than 
by  the  fall;  so  the  child  who  looks  to  parent  or  teacher 
as  its  only  controlling  agency  will  never  fully  develop 
its  own  self-control.  Self-control  develops  in  the  same 
way  as  all  other  powers  of  self-expression  or  self-direc- 
tion— by  regular  and  progressive  exercise.  The  child 
should  be  led  to  feel  its  individual  responsibility,  for  a 
child's  duty  not  a  man's,  as  early  as  possible,  and  al- 
lowed to  direct  its  own  powers  toward  the  accomplish- 
ment of  its  own  purposes,  limited  by  the  law  defining  the 
rights  of  others.  Reverence  for  the  majesty  of  the  law 
is  a  mightier  force  in  character-building  than  yielding 
to  the  will  of  a  teacher.    Submission  to  law  is  an  element 


!■..->! 


''•IP 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


165 


of  true  manhood;  mere  subserviency  to  a  human  being 
is  a  characteristic  of  a  slave.  The  child  who  is  forced 
to  submit  passively  and  continuously  to  the  personal 
tlominalion  of  its  teacher  can  never  have  true  concep- 
tions of  liberty  and  individual  responsibility. 

It  is  utterly  degrading  to  give  pupils  the  idea  that 
they  are  naturally  expected  to  do  wrong  and  that  the 
teacher's  constant  duty  is  to  check  their  natural  tend- 
encies. We  should  have  faith  in  children.  They  deserve 
our  faith,  and  if  they  do  not,  we  may  make  them  worthy 
of  faith  by  trusting  them.  Let  a  boy  understand  that 
you  expect  him  to  do  wrong,  and  he  will  usually  fulfil 
your  expectations.  Boys  love  the  right  better  than  the 
wrong.  They  prefer  the  true  to  the  false.  They  like 
to  do  good  (not  to  be  lectured  about  doing  good)  better 
than  to  do  evil.  They  would  rather  produce  than  de- 
stroy. They  love  activity  because  it  gives  life;  they  hate 
passivity  because  it  leads  to  death.  Even  if  a  boy  is  bad, 
inspiration  is  a  grander  controlling  force  than  coercion. 
The  most  complete  belief  in  the  depravity  of  a  child's 
nature  does  not  justify  the  destruction  of  its  spontane- 
ity. Natural  tendency  may  not  always  be  toward  the 
divine;  natural  power  is  always  divine,  and  may  become 
the  controlling  agency  in  correcting  wrong  tendency, 
liad  tempers  and  evil  dispositions  are  defined  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  child  by  criticism  and  coercion.  Such  de- 
fining is  necessarily  evil.  The  wise  teacher  is  never  sad- 
dened by  the  exhibition  of  strength  and  force  by  a  child, 
even  if  they  are  manifested  in  selfish  forms.  The  child 
with  most  power  for  evil  should  become  strongest  for 
good  with  wise  training.  The  teacher's  skill  is  shown 
by  transforming  power,  not  by  destroying  it.    Teachers 


1-^ 


*  i 


166 


FBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


should  remember  that  when  the  child  comes  to  school 
it  is  in  an  advanced  stage  of  its  training.  Human  agen- 
cies by  improper  control  or  by  equally  improper  free- 
dom, or  usually  by  a  dreadful  mixture  of  both,  have  been 
destroying  the  true  spontaneity  of  the  child. 

All  control  is  wrong  that  attempts  to  fetter  the  child 
with  a  man's  thoughts,  a  man's  motives,  or  a  man's 
creed.  Herein  lies  the  greatest  danger.  It  is  a  fatal 
blunder  to  rob  a  child  of  its  childhood.  We  interfere  too 
often  with  a  child's  spontaneity  by  checking  its  plays 
or  by  rousing  it  from  its  reveries.  Teachers  should  re- 
member that  what  would  be  folly  or  indolence  in  them 
may  be  absolutely  essential  for  the  highest  development 
of  the  child  physically,  intellectually,  and  morally.  A 
child  may  be  injured  morally  by  stopping  its  play  with  the 
sand  on  the  seashore,  or  its  ramble  among  the  flowers,  or 
its  apparently  idle  dream  as  it  lies  looking  at  the  clouds, 
to  force  it  to  listen  to  religious  exercises  it  does  not  un- 
derstand. The  music  of  the  birds  and  bees  is  more  likely 
to  arouse  its  spiritual  nature  than  the  music  of  an  organ. 
He  is  the  best  teacher  who  most  clearly  remembers  the 
feelings  and  thoughts  of  his  own  boyhood.  We  can  not 
force  maturity  on  a  child  in  feeling,  motive,  thought, 
or  action  without  making  it  a  hypocrite,  and  we  can 
make  nothing  worse  out  of  it.  The  darkest  hour  in  a 
child's  life  is  the  hour  when  it  draws  a  curtain  over  the 
windows  of  its  heart  to  shut  out  mother  or  teacher,  and 
deceit  usurps  the  place  of  honest  frankness.  It  is  easy 
for  a  child  to  degenerate  when  those  in  authority  over  it 
make  it  a  hypocrite,  a  A  turn  the  life-producing  waters 
of  its  free,  responsive  nature  into  a  stagnant  pool.  Evil 
habits  are  poisonous  growths  springing  from  the  trunks 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


167 


of  decaying  powers,  and  nourished  by  the  sap  intended 
to  develop  holy  inspirations. 

The  motives  of  men  and  women  are  not  those  that 
stir  children's  lives  to  activity.  The  child  rises  from 
high  to  higher  motives  if  properly  guided. 

Growth  can  not  be  forced,  and  the  attempt  to  force 
it  checks  spontaneity  and  weakens  individuality.  Teach- 
ers often  try  to  be  power  for  their  children,  instead  of 
guiding  the  powers  already  existing  in  the  pupils.  They 
try  to  force  growth,  or  to  restrict  growth  instead  of  pro- 
viding the  best  conditions  of  growth,  and  reverently 
allowing  growth  to  proceed  in  accordance  with  Divine 
law.  They  try  to  improve  the  flower  queen  by  opening 
the  rosebud  instead  of  strengthening  the  rosebush.  How 
grandly  Nature's  laws  act!  The  sun  never  commands 
the  flower  to  grow,  nor  does  the  rain  say  chidingly, 
"  Drink  or  you  shall  not  grow."  The  rain  falls  gently, 
the  sun  shines  brightly,  and  the  flowers  become  strong 
and  beautiful. 

Between  opposites,  Froebel  always  sought  to  find  the 
mediation.  Between  control  and  spontaneity  he  discov- 
ered the  mediation  to  be  productive  self-activity.  Chil- 
dren love  to  work  with  material  in  harmony  with  their 
stage  of  development.  Froebel  used  this  love  of  work 
to  develop  the  creative  instinct,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  have  the  work  done  in  accordance  with  limitations, 
or  rules,  or  laws.  He  saw  by  careful  study  of  childhood 
that  children  must  have  outlets  for  their  energy,  and  he 
provided  play  and  work  to  give  them  this  outlet.  He 
recognised  the  universal  fact  that  "  evil  springs  from 
unused  good."  Unused  good  becomes  misused  good,  and 
produces  evil.    The  same  power  that  is  intended  to  make 


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168 


FROBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


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the  child  constructive  makes  it  destructive  if  wrongly 
used.  The  same  tendency  that  undirected  makes  the  an- 
archist will  make  a  law-respecting  citizen  if  guided 
wisely. 

In  the  planning  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  the  kinder- 
garten, Froebel  never  forgot  to  lay  down  limitations 
within  which,  and  rules  by  which,  the  child  should  do 
its  work.  These  limitations  and  rules,  however,  did  not 
interfere  with  the  child's  spontaneity.  Within  the  lim- 
its and  under  the  rules  there  was  wide  scope  for  varia- 
tion, and  each  child  was  free  to  represent  its  own  ideals 
as  soon  as,  by  working  under  the  direction  of  the  teacher, 
it  had  grasped  the  process  of  using  the  material  supplied 
to  it.  The  limitations  and  rules  instead  of  interfering 
with  its  spontaneity,  defined  it,  made  it  easier  to  exer- 
cise it  consciously,  and  directed  it  into  productive  and 
therefore  joy-giving  channels. 

The  child,  by  its  use  of  every  gift  and  occupation  of 
Froebers  system,  is  made  a  free  agent,  but  it  is  free  with 
the  restriction  of  necessary  law — law  to  which  the  kin- 
dergartner  herself  submits.  In  perforating,  sewing,  and 
drawing  what  Froebel  called  the  "  forms  of  beauty  "  or 
design,  the  child  is  restricted  by  the  network  lines  used 
as  the  basis  of  the  designs  and  by  the  law  of  sjrmmetry. 
In  most  of  the  work  done  in  these  departments  there  is 
the  additional  restriction  to  lines  limited  in  number, 
length,  and  direction.  Definite  law  and  logical  order 
are  followed  even  in  the  additions  made  from  day  to  day 
in  the  number  of  lines  and  the  variations  allowed  in  their 
length  and  direction. 

In  mat-weaving,  the  pupils,  even  when  they  make 
their  own  designs^  hay?  to  follow  a  regular  plan,  or  com- 


1 


1 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANBITY. 


169 


bination  of  plans,  in  regard  to  the  number  of  strips  over 
and  under  the  strip  they  are  weaving  in.  Method,  law, 
order,  sequence  are  followed  in  all  the  steps  made  from 
the  simplest  "  one  up,  one  down,"  to  the  most  complex 
combinations. 

In  colour-work,  whether  in  mat-weaving  or  brush- 
work,  the  child  is  limited  in  the  number  of  colours  to  be 
used. 

In  paper-folding  there  is  a  definite  order  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  getting  the  foundation  forms,  and  a  regular  se- 
quence of  transition  from  one  form  to  another. 

In  paper-cutting  there  is  a  logical  sequence  for  the 
preparatory  folding  and  creasing  of  the  paper,  and  for 
the  cutting  also;  and  the  pasting  of  the  resulting  cor- 
responding forms  must  be  done  in  accordance  with  the 
law  of  symmetrical  arrangement  about  a  centre. 

In  making  designs  or  objective  forms,  houses, 
bridges,  tunnels,  towers,  stoves,  sofas,  etc.,  with  the  gifts, 
more  than  one  law  must  be  followed.  The  whole  of  the 
material  must  be  used,  and  the  various  objects  and  build- 
ings must  be  evolved.  One  structure  must  not  be  de- 
stroyed that  another  may  be  constructed  from  the  ruins; 
the  new  one  must  be  made  by  making  a  change  from  the 
one  already  made. 

The  law  of  unity,  continuity,  and  harmony  of  oppo- 
sites  must  be  kept  in  mind  in  all  the  work  of  the  child, 
so  that  it  comes  to  recognise  freedom  within  rule,  liberty 
under  law  as  a  foundation  principle,  as  something  nat- 
ural and  necessary  which  becomes  a  part  of  its  code  of 
essential  guiding  principles. 

In  Froebel's  plays  the  same  submission  to  controlling 
laws  is  a  part  of  the  child's  experience.    Each  child  in 


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170 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


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playing  is  a  free  agent  within  the  limits  assigned  to  it 
and  under  the  governing  rules  of  the  game.  It  performs 
its  duty  in  the  game  as  an  independent  individual,  but 
is  compelled  to  respect  the  rights  of  the  other  individ- 
uals composing  the  society  to  which  it  belongs.  It  could 
have  no  better  training  as  an  active  member  of  society 
when  it  reaches  maturity.  In  both  its  work  and  its  play 
it  finds  itself  under  the  reign  of  law  which  is  beneficent 
and  not  cramping.  Throughout  FroebePs  whole  system 
he  maintained  the  same  perfect  unity  between  control 
and  spontaneity,  and  thus  made  the  "  perfect  law  of  lib- 
erty "  a  part  of  the  personal  character  of  each  child. 
When  self-activity  is  carried  out  with  a  complete  recog- 
nition of  the  supremacy  of  law,  it  becomes  the  surest 
basis  for  a  conscious  love  of  liberty. 

He  revealed  the  universality  of  law  to  the  child  by 
showing  it  that  every  plant  grows  in  harmony  with  an 
inner  law.  Each  variety  of  tree,  shrub,  and  flower  has 
its  own  method  of  branching,  its  own  peculiar  type  of 
root,  trunk  or  stalk,  leaf  and  flower.  Each  member  of 
any  species  is  governed  by  the  same  law  of  growth.  Ex- 
ternal conditions  may  modify  the  shape  of  the  plant, 
but  whether  it  grows  to  harmonious  proportions  in  un- 
impeded freedom  or  is  dwarfed  and  deformed  by  obsta- 
cles that  interfere  with  its  growth,  it  possesses  the  char- 
aotoristie  peculiarities  of  its  class;  it  is  stamped  by  the 
dominant  law  of  its  species. 

By  making  self-activity  within  law  the  fundamental 
process  in  his  system  Froebel  secured  the  perfect  har- 
mony between  spontaneity  and  control.  Selfhood  and 
law  are  constantly  respected  in  his  system.  They  are 
never  put  at  variance.    The  child  is  airways  self-direct- 


W' 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


171 


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ingf  although  at  first  it  is  guided  in  its  self -direction. 
Self-effacement  is  never  made  the  basis  of  self-control. 
From  the  first  the  child's  will  is  active,  because  activity 
is  the  source  of  growth.  The  theory  of  stage  develop- 
ment applies  to  the  will  as  fully  as  to  any  other  power. 
The  will  in  the  first  stage  should  not  be  allowed  to  do 
the  work  it  is  expected  to  do  in  the  higher  stages  of  the 
evolution  of  its  complete  control.  It  may  be  guided  and 
even  aided,  but  it  must  be  self-active  if  it  is  to  grow  to 
conscious  power. 

Anarchy  is  not  the  fierce  son  of  freedom,  but  the 
cruel  son  of  coercion.  True  freedom  leaves  the  child 
no  need  for  anarchy  in  Froebel's  system,  because  it  is 
joyously  occupied  at  productive  work.  Mere  freedom 
is  not  Froebel's  mediation  between  control  and  sponta- 
neity. He  calls  into  complete  development  two  dominat- 
ing principles  in  the  life  of  a  well-balanced  child — love 
of  freedom  and  productive  activity.  The  union  of  these 
forms  the  complete  bond  between  the  apparent  opposites, 
and  makes  an  organic  unity  of  diverse  elements,  which  is 
the  most  perfect  type  of  unity  according  to  Froebel. 

Productive  activity  is  the  chief  source  of  joy  to  child- 
hood, and  should  be  man's  greatest  fountain  of  pleasure 
if  his  training  has  given  proper  development  to  his  nat- 
ural tendency.  There  is  no  room  for  anarchy  in  the  cx>-  / 
pericnce  of  a  child  or  a  man  whose  life  is  filled  with  op-  \/ 
portunities  for  self-expression  in  any  form  of  productive 
activity.  Anarchy  results  chiefly  from  the  overflow  of 
repressed  energy,  which  demands  relief  from  coercion 
and  finds  relief  in  unnatural  outlets.  It  is  another  illus- 
tration of  the  truth  of  Ruskin's  aphorism,  "  All  evil 
springs  from  unused  (misused)  good."    The  right  use 


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FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


of  the  elements  of  character  that  make  the  anarchist 
would  make  of  the  same  man  a  good  member  of  society. 
Froebel  would  never  let  law  and  selfhood  become  di- 
vorced. His  entire  system  aims  to  keep  them  in  har- 
mony, and  to  unfold  this  harmony  more  and  more  clearly 
till  it  becomes  a  controlling  element  in  character. 

One  of  the  greatest  powers  the  parent  or  teacher  can 
exercise  in  the  direction  of  children  is  the  power  to 
change  the  centre  of  interest  from  evil  to  good.  Froebel 
refused  to  believe  that  children  love  to  do  wrong  better 
than  to  do  right.  He  believed  that  their  dominant  de- 
sire was  to  do.  Whether  to  do  right  or  wrong  at  first 
depends  on  environment  and  experience;  afterward  on 
habit  and  judgment.  He  knew  that,  even  though  they 
may  become  happier  in  doing  right  than  in  doing  wrong, 
little  children  are  not  wise  enough  to  decide  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong,  and  that  they  prefer  to  do — 
rather  than  not  to  do — even  if  they  have  to  do  wrong. 
He  separated  the  doing  from  the  thing  done,  and  in  this 
he  was  wiser  than  other  educational  philosophers.  He 
said  to  teachers  in  effect:  The  child  loves  doing — activ- 
ity. It  loves  better  doing  work  that  is  the  expression 
of  its  selfhood — self -activity.  It  loves  best  of  all  doing 
work  that  is  the  expression  of  its  selfhood,  and  at  the 
same  time  produces  something  of  use — productive  self- 
activity.  Our  duty  as  teachers  is  to  guide  the  child  so 
that  its  natural  tendency  to  do  may  develop  in  manhood 
into  the  habit  of  productive  self -activity.  This  will  make 
the  race  most  happy  when  engaged  in  productive  work; 
not  alone  with  material  things,  but  in  the  higher  realms 
of  intellectual  and  spiritual  work.  Therefore  he  de- 
plored most  of  all  the  fatal  blunder  that  has  been  the 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


173 


leading  characteristic  of  all  discipline,  both  in  the  home 
and  the  school,  of  checking  activity,  because  it  was  di- 
rected to  wrong  ends. 

Activity  results  from  a  divinely  implanted  tendency 
which  the  Creator  meant  to  be  used  energetically 
through  life,  and  which  is  the  motive  power  that  impels 
man  to  labour  in  the  conquest  of  Nature  and  in  achiev- 
ing the  higher  victories  over  evil.  Triumph  is  the  re- 
ward of  conscious  struggle.  The  power  to  struggle  per- 
sistently lies  at  the  foundation  of  grand  character. 
Truly  great  characters  are  those  who  struggle  most  ear- 
nestly and  most  selfishly  for  the  achievement  of  right. 
Childhood  loves  to  encounter  difficulties  in  play  or  in 
work.  It  is  a  natural  instinct  that  leads  it  to  exercise 
its  powers  to  qualify  it  for  a  life  work  of  overcoming. 
The  teacher  who  checks  activity  in  a  child  does  a  griev- 
ous wrong.  The  activity  is  right,  even  though  its  aim 
be  wrong.  Interest  should  lead  to  activity.  It  opposes 
the  natural  evolution  of  a  child's  powers  in  the  most 
positive  and  the  most  pernicious  way  to  permit  its  in- 
terest to  be  aroused  so  thoroughly  as  to  lead  it  to  definite 
activity,  and  then  dogmatically  and  ( oercively  check  the 
activity  and  block  the  way  to  the  accomplishment  of  its 
purpose.  Nothing  can  contribute  more  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  character  power,  and  the  substitution  of  inert- 
ness for  activity  and  negatJveness  for  positiveness,  than 
the  persistent  stopping  of  activity.  It  weakens  interest 
and  the  tendency  to  achievement,  and  thus  robs  the 
child  of  both  the  motive  and  the  power  to  act. 

"  Stop,"  "  Don't,"  and  "  Be  quiet,"  have  been  the 
leading  words  in  a  teacher's  vocabulary  of  discipline. 
Before  Froebel  revolutionized  discipline  commands  were 


174 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


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enforced  by  terrorism.  The  teacher  was  a  tyrant  and 
the  pupil  a  slave.  Authority  was  founded  on  force,  and 
respect  for  it  on  fear.  These  were  the  conditions  best 
calculated  to  develop  selfishness,  hatred  of  law,  disre- 
spect for  authority,  and  therefore  to  foster  the  spirit  of 
anarchy. 

But  the  chief  evil  of  the  system  of  repression  is  the 
destruction  of  force  of  character.  The  lessening  of  the 
child's  interest  in  life,  and  the  weakening  of  its  tendency 
to  execute  its  plans  and  decisions.  The  very  powers  on 
which  intellectual  development  and  storing  and  execu- 
tive achievement  depend  most,  and  which  the  teacher 
should  aim  most  to  cultivate,  are  those  which  were 
checked  continually  before  Froebel's  time. 

Froebel's  separation  of  the  love  of  doing  from  the 
end  of  the  doing  enabled  him  to  solve  the  greatest  prob- 
lem in  discipline  by  the  substitution  of  a  change  in  the 
interest  centre  in  place  of  the  old  and  still  too  common 
practice  of  stopping  the  child's  activity.  The  power 
to  change  the  centre  of  interest  from  wrong  to  right 
constitutes  the  highest  disciplinary  ability  a  teacher  can 
possess.  The  skilful  teacher  never  requires  to  say 
"  Stop  "  or  "  Don't."  The  world  is  so  full  of  wonders 
and  of  beautiful,  attractive  things  that  the  teacher  should 
always  be  able  to  turn  the  interested  attention  from 
wrong  to  right,  or  to  revive  exhausted  interest  and  list- 
less attention  by  changing  the  centre  of  interest.  It 
may  require  close  study  of  children's  interests  to  do  this 
eif ectively,  but  no  study  will  pay  better.  To  destroy  the 
child's  interest  saps  its  intellectual  life  and  energy.  This 
is  a  crime  against  the  individual  and  the  race.  It  is  little 
better  to  distract  attention  by  temporary  expedients  or 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


175 


by  greater  energy  and  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the 
teacher.  This  still  leaves  the  child  in  a  negative  condi- 
tion, because  it  makes  attention  the  end  of  the  process. 
Attention  that  ends  in  attention  can  not  be  long  sus- 
tained. Unless  it  leads  to  independent,  progressive,  in- 
tellectual activity,  interest  soon  dies,  and  the  child  is  left 
in  an  inert  mental  condition.  The  teacher  can  not  long 
remain  the  centre  of  interest  to  the  child.  No  adult 
should  assume  to  control  the  interest  of  even  a  single 
child.  It  is  impossible  to  sustain  real  interest  in  a  class 
by  talking,  by  exhibiting  pictures  or  objects,  or  even 
by  performing  experiments.  To  listen,  to  look,  or  to 
observe  leaves  the  child  in  a  receptive  condition.  Sus- 
tained interest  demands  more  than  this.  True  character 
growth  intellectually  and  spiritually  calls  for  more  than 
this.  Interest  must  lead  to  activity  in  some  form  on  the 
part  of  the  child  itself.  Even  when  -hanging  the  centre 
of  the  child's  interest  the  teacher  should  lead  to  the  new 
interest  without  making  the  child  conscious  of  interfer- 
ence. The  tactful  teacher  usually  gets  the  suggestion 
of  new  interest  centres  from  the  pupils. 

Productive  self -activity  sustains  interest  and  prevents 
the  inattention  and  the  mischief-making  so  common  in 
the  schools  of  former  times.  There  should  be  no  occasion 
for  the  scolding  and  checking  still  too  often  practised. 
Many  teachers  still  check  the  natural  tendency  to  activ- 
ity till  their  pupils  become  idle,  and  then  scold  them 
for  being  idle.  When  the  harmony  between  control  and 
spontaneity  is  thoroughly  understood  and  based  on  the 
child's  productive  self -activity,  there  will  be  no  need  for 
what  has  been  called  discipline  in  the  schools.  "  There 
is  no  need  of  any  constraint  or  any  command  for  that 


176 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


1 ) 


Lit' 


',   '! 


n> 


activity  which  is  in  harmony  with  the  heing  of  man  in 
general,  and  at  the  same  time  with  his  individual  dis- 
position. It  will  act  freely  with  love,  and  not  overstep 
the  measure  of  the  powers  at  different  ages."  Activity 
under  law  produces  harmony  and  development;  inert- 
ness under  law  leads  to  anarchy  and  deterioration. 

Spontaneity  in  productive  self-activity  develops  ac- 
tive instead  of  passive  obedience,  co-operation  instead  of 
obstinacy  and  stubbornness,  activity  instead  of  inertia  of 
character,  energy  instead  of  indolence,  positiveness  in- 
stead of  negativeness,  cheerfulness  instead  of  dulness, 
and  independence  instead  of  subserviency. 

The  extensive  recognition  of  the  universality  of  the 
principle  of  human  liberty  demands  that  all  children  be 
trained  under  such  conditions  as  will  develop  a  conscious 
recognition  of  the  perfect  harmony  between  law  and  lib- 
erty. Such  an  education  Froebel  planned  to  give.  Dur- 
ing its  stage  of  unconscious  imitation  the  child  should  be 
directed  within  the  limitations  of  necessary  rules  and 
principles  in  the  accomplishment  of  its  own  purposes. 
The  direction  of  the  superior  mind  does  not  weaken  the 
child's  selfhood  unless  the  teacher  makes  the  child 
conscious  of  the  direction.  When  it  becomes  "per- 
gonal or  arbitrary,"  direction  becomes  destructive.  Direc- 
tion followed  without  consciousness  of  subordination 
should  gradually  lead  to  conscious  recognition  of  law, 
and  responsibility,  and  individual  power  and  freedom. 
This  is  the  true  ideal  of  unity  between  control  and  spon- 
taneity. It  is  impossible  to  give  a  young  man  a  clear 
comprehension  of  this  unity,  and  its  full  meaning  in  de- 
veloping self-government,  self-restraint,  self -direction, 
and  self-reliance,  coupled  with  a  definite  conception  of 


i;'^ 


CONTROL  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


177 


the  relationship  hetween  individual  and  universal  human 
rights,  and  of  law  as  the  most  complete  expression  of 
these  rights,  by  a  theoretical  exposition  of  its  principles. 
Courses  in  colleges  and  universities  on  social  science  and 
political  economy  can  never  truly  become  vital  elements 
in  a  man's  character  unless  he  has  apperceptive  centres 
of  experience  to  correspond  to  them. 

Froebel,  by  his  fundamental  principle  of  discipline 
or  child  guidance,  has  in  two  generations  revolutionized 
the  schools.  They  are  no  longer  places  for  the  exercise 
of  tyrannical  coercion  and  passive  obedience.  Kind- 
ness has  taken  the  place  of  severity,  and  sadness  has  been 
driven  out  by  the  sunlight  of  joyousness.  The  twentieth 
century  will  make  schools  what  Froebel  wished  them  to 
be — "Free  republics  of  childhood."  How  much  that 
phrase  means! 

The  truest  educational  progress  of  the  ages  has  been 
toward  harmony  between  control  and  spontaneity,  guid- 
ance and  freedom,  obedience  and  independence,  submis- 
sion and  liberty.  Freedom  is  the  only  basis  broad  enough 
on  which  to  rest  a  system  of  education.  We  should  aim 
to  secure  free  growth;  not  the  wild  growth  of  the  jungle, 
but  the  free,  assisted  growth  of  the  best  cultivated  gar- 
den. "  No  man  is  free  who  is  not  master  of  himself," 
said  Epictetus.  It  is  self-evident  that  no  man  can  be 
master  of  himself  who  is  not  free.  Only  through  free- 
dom can  he  fully  know  the  self  he  has  to  master. 

The  Baroness  von  Marenholtz-Biilow  wisely  says: 
"  Childhood's  unconscious  lesson  to  us  is  that  what  is 
undeveloped  can  without  guidance  never  be  free,  but, 
left  to  itself,  must  inevitably  fall  into  caprice.  Guidance 
capacitates  for  freedom.    It  is  a  dominant  error  of  our 


1 1 


a 


■it 


178 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


if  t 


\:i 


tit 


age  to  demand  freedom  where  the  capacity  for  freedom 
is  still  lacking."  This  truth  may  lead  to  error  unless  the 
corresponding  truth  that  freedom  means  nothing  to  un- 
developed selfhood  is  as  clearly  recognised.  We  should 
prepare  our  pupils  for  fruit-bearing  at  maturity,  but  we 
should  never  try  to  make  them  "bear  to  pattern,"  as 
Dr.  Blimber  did.  The  child  should  be  controlled,  but 
control  should  consist  in  letting  the  sunshine  into  its 
life,  that  it  may  be  stirred  to  action,  and  through  action 
grow  to  greater  life. 

The  proper  use  of  power  in  all  stages  of  a  man's  de- 
velopment is  the  most  certain  way  of  revealing  true  free- 
dom and  preventing  its  misuse.  Froebel  condensed  this 
central  educational  thought  into  two  short  sentences: 
"  The  will  is  strengthened  only  hy  voluntary  activity. 
By  striving  to  create  the  beautiful  and  the  good,  the 
feelings  are  developed,  and  by  all  lawful,  thoughtful,  free 
activity  the  mind  is  cultivated." 

By  lawful,  thoughtful,  free,  productive  self-activity 
from  childhood  to  maturity  man  is  prepared  for  the 
struggle  of  each  soul  "  to  break  its  fetters  and  lead  to 
freedom — that  is,  to  that  freedom  which  recognises  law 
as  its  first  principle,  and  submits  to  it  consciously.'' 

FroebePs  work  has  influenced  the  work  of  discipline 
more  than  any  other  department  of  school  work,  but 
the  improvement  has  resulted  chiefly  from  the  objective 
lessons  in  loving  kindness  and  sympathy  given  in  the 
kindergarten.  The  underlying  philosophy  of  the  law  of 
harmony  between  control  and  spontaneity  is  not  yet  fully 
understood  by  teachers.  When  it  is  clearly  compre- 
hended universally,  all  schools  will  become  "  Free  re- 
publics of  childhood." 


11^ 


CHAPTER  VII. 

NATtTBB  AS  THE   REVEALER  OF   LIFE,   EVOLUTION,  AND 

GOD. 


^ 


Some  educators  yet  maintain  that  Nature  study  has 
no  influence  on  moral  education.  Froebel  made  Nature 
the  chief  agency  outside  of  the  home  in  laying  the 
foundation  in  the  child's  mind  for  the  comprehension 
of  religious  truth,  as  through  it  he  revealed  to  the  child 
life,  evolution,  power  to  help  other  life  to  better  life, 
and  God  himself.    He  says: 

"Education  as  instruction  should  lead  man  to  see 
and  know  the  divine,  spiritual,  and  eternal  principle 
which  animates  surrounding  Nature,  constitutes  the  es- 
sence of  Nature,  and  is  permanently  manifested  in  Na- 
ture." 

"  Indeed,  life  in  and  with  Nature,  and  with  the  fair, 
silent  things  of  Nature,  should  be  fostered  at  this  time 
by  parents  and  other  members  of  the  family  as  a  chief 
fulcrum  of  child  life" 

"  The  Spirit  of  God  rests  in  Nature,  lives  and  reigns 
in  Nature,  is  expressed  in  Nature,  is  communicated  by 
Nature,  is  developed  and  cultivated  in  Nature — yet  Na- 
ture is  not  the  body  of  God." 

"As  we  study  the  works  of  man,  how  much  more 
13  170 


180 


PBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


']i 


then  should  we  endeavour  to  know  Nature,  the  work  of 
Ood;  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  objects  of  Nature 
in  their  life,  their  significance,  in  their  relation  to  the 
Spirit  of  God." 

"  Nature  and  man  have  their  origin  in  one  and  the 
same  eternal  Being,  and  their  development  takes  place 
in  accordance  with  the  same  laws,  only  at  different 
stages." 

"  The  observation  of  Nature  and  the  observation  of 
man  are  mutually  explanatory,  and  naturally  lead  to 
deeper  knowledge,  the  one  of  the  other." 

"  Man — particularly  in  boyhood — should  become  in- 
timate with  Nature,  not  so  much  with  reference  to  the 
details  and  outer  forms  of  her  phenomena,  as  with  refer- 
ence to  the  Spirit  of  God  that  lives  in  her  and  rules  over 
her.  Indeed,  the  boy  feels  this  deeply,  and  demands  it; 
for  this  reason,  where  love  of  Nature  is  still  unimpaired, 
nothing  perhaps  unites  teachers  and  pupils  so  intimately 
as  the  thoughtful  study  of  Nature." 

"  The  boy — the  learning  human  being — should  at  an 
early  period  be  taught  to  see  Nature  in  all  her  diversity 
as  a  unit,  as  a  great  living  whole,  as  one  thought  of  God. 
The  integrity  of  Nature  as  a  continuously  developing 
whole  must  be  shown  him  at  an  early  period.  Without 
a  knowledge  of  this  unity  in  the  activities  and  fonns  of 
Nature,  it  is  impossible  to  attain  or  to  impart  a  genuine 
knowledge  of  natural  history." 

"  The  things  of  Nature  form  a  more  beautiful  ladder 
between  heaven  and  earth  than  that  seen  by  Jacob;  not 
a  one-sided  ladder  leading  in  one  direction,  but  an  all- 
fiided  one  leading  in  all  directions." 

"  All  that  is  told  in  Genesis  of  the  history  of  creation 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OP  LIFE.       181 


ork  of 
Mature 
to  the 

nd  the 
i  place 
fferent 

tion  of 
ead  to 

ime  in- 
to the 
1  ref er- 
es  over 
inds  it; 
paired, 
mately 

lat  an 
versity 
f  God. 
loping 
ithout 
nns  of 
muine 

ladder 
,,  not 
in  all- 
nation 


is  lived  by  the  child  in  his  kindergarten  education.  In- 
stead of  words  he  needs  his  own  experience;  his  garden 
work  teaches  him  that  the  growth  of  plants  does  not  de- 
pend upon  himself  or  upon  human  power,  but  that  an 
invisible  power  governs  it.  This  teaches  him  almost 
without  words  to  find  the  Creator." 

"  I  can  still  see  my  hazel  buds,  like  angels,  opening 
for  me  the  great  God*s  temple  of  Nature." 

"I  have  ever  thankfully  enjoyed  what  Nature  has 
spread  before  my  eyes,  and  she  has  always  been  in  true 
motherly  unity  with  me." 

"  Living  cheerfully  and  joyfully  in  the  bosom  of  Na- 
ture with  my  first  pupils,  I  began  to  tell  myself  that  the 
training  of  natural  life  was  closely  akin  to  the  training 
of  human  life." 

"  Man  is  compelled  not  only  to  recognise  Nature  in 
her  manifold  forms  and  appearances,  but  also  to  under- 
stand her  in  the  unity  of  her  inner  working,  of  her  effec- 
tive force.  Therefore  he  himself  follows  Nature's  meth- 
ods in  the  course  of  his  own  development  and  culture, 
and  in  his  games  he  imitates  Nature  at  her  work  of  crea- 
tion." 

"Every  contact  with  Nature  elevates,  strengthens, 
purifies." 

"  As  I  wandered  on  in  the  sunlit,  far-stretching  hills, 
or  along  the  still  shore  of  the  lake,  clear  as  crystal, 
smooth  as  a  mirror,  or  in  the  shady  groves,  under  the 
tall  forest  trees,  my  spirit  grew  full  with  ideas  of  the 
truly  Godlike  nature  and  priceless  value  of  a  man's  soul, 
and  I  gladdened  myself  with  the  consideration  of  man- 
kind as  the  beloved  children  of  God." 

"  When  I  was  consulted  by  others,  I  looked  to  Na- 


182 


FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


.1, 


Vi-  i 


ture  for  the  answer,  and  let  Nature,  life,  spirit,  and  law 
epeak  for  themselves  through  me." 

These  quotations  from  FroebePs  writings  prove  that 
he  was  one  of  the  prophet  souls  of  Nature.  The  symbol- 
ism of  Nature  as  a  revealer  of  life,  unity,  development, 
human  evolution,  and  God,  illuminated  Froebel's  mind 
and  made  him  a  true  poet.  Though  he  wrote  not  in  the 
rhythmic  metre  of  the  poets,  the  rhythmic  melody  filled 
his  life,  and  made  him  the  poetical  philosopher  of  Na- 
ture as  Wordsworth  was  her  philosophical  poet.  Mr. 
Bowen  has  shown  how  much  alike  Froebel  and  Words- 
worth were  in  their  love  for  Nature  and  their  interpreta- 
tion of  her  symbolism.  These  two  were  Nature's  deep- 
est philosophers.  They  reached  the  great  Nature  heart 
about  the  same  time  (Froebel  a  little  earlier)  and  inde- 
pendently. To  Froebel  may  be  given  the  honour  of  see- 
ing first  "  that  the  training  of  natural  life  is  closely  akin 
to  the  training  of  human  life,"  and  of  working  this 
thought  out  practically  as  a  part  of  his  educational  sys- 
tem. Of  the  writers  before  Froebel,  Pope  had  the  clear- 
est conception  of  the  unity  between  Nature,  man,  and 
God.    In  his  Essay  on  Man  he  says: 

All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul.'' 

Wordsworth  expressed  the  same  thought  over  and 
over  again:  - 

Happy  is  he  who  lives  to  understand 
Not  human  nature  only,  but  explores 
All  natures,  to  the  end  that  he  may  find 
The  law  that  governs  each ;  and  where  begins 
The  union,  the  partition  where,  that  makes         >, 
Kind  and  degree  among  all  visible  beings ; 


MATURE  AS  THE  REVEALBR  OP  LIFE.       183 

The  constitutions,  powers,  and  faculties. 
Which  they  inheru— can  not  step  beyond— 
And  can  not  fall  beneath ;  that  do  assign 
To  every  class  its  station  and  its  office, 
Through  all  the  mighty  commonwealth  of  things^ 
Up  from  the  creeping  plant  to  sovereign  maa. 

To  every  form  of  being  is  assigned 
An  active  principle ;  howe'er  removed 
From  sense  and  observation,  it  subsists 
In  all  things,  in  all  natures,  in  the  stars 
Of  azure  heaven,  the  unenduring  clouds, 
In  flower  and  tree,  in  every  pebbly  stone 
That  paves  the  brooks,  the  stationary  rocks, 
The  moving  waters,  and  the  invisible  air. 

Since  the  time  of  Froebel  and  Wordsworth  many 
great  thinkers  have  learned  the  symbolism  oi  Nature, 
and  have  woven  it  into  song  or  story.  The  fact  that 
these  advanced  leaders  of  a  developing  race  have  had 
their  minds  filled  with  this  vital  thought  indicates  that 
the  race  itself  is  nearing  the  stage  in  its  evolution  when 
it  will  comprehend  the  thought  and  make  it  an  impelling 
force  in  its  upward  progress. 
Longfellow,  in  writing  of  flowers,  says: 

In  all  places  then,  and  in  all  seasons, 
Flowers  expand  their  light  and  soul4ike  wings; 

Teaching  us  by  most  persuasive  reasons, 
How  akin  they  are  to  human  things. 

And  with  childlike,  credulous  affection 
We  behold  their  tender  buds  expand, 

Emblems  of  our  own  great  resurrection : 
Emblems  of  the  bright  and  better  land. 

Tennyson  beautifully  expresses  the  same  thought: 


I    ! 


184 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


rr- 


Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  your  crannies, 
Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand. 
Little  flower— but  if  I  could  understand 
What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  Ood  and  man  is. 
To  Froebel  the  active  principle  in  Nature  was  God. 
He  saw  this  active  principle  in  all  things — the  stars,  the 
sky,  the  clouds,  the  flowers,  the  trees,  the  brooks,  and 
even  in  the  rocks.  He  believed  that  to  every  child  Na- 
ture speaks  clearly  and  tenderly  of  this  life.  Even 
though  the  child  may  not  be  conscious  of  the  fact,  its 
life  is  enriched  by  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Na- 
ture as  it  can  be  in  no  other  way.  Nature  was  to  Froebel 
a  stimulating  atmosphere  in  which  the  whole  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  being  is  invigorated,  and  through 
which  God  makes  to  the  child  manifold  revelations. 
Therefore  he  said  to  parents:  "  Take  your  little  children 
by  the  hand;  go  with  them  into  Nature  as  into  the  house 
of  God.  Allow  the  wee  one  to  stroke  the  good  cow's 
forehead,  and  run  about  among  the  fowl,  and  play  at 
i..e  edge  of  the  wood.  Make  companions  for  your  boys 
and  girls  of  the  trees  and  the  banks  and  the  pasture 
land."  He  meant  a  great  deal  by  companionship  with 
Nature.  The  living  principle  in  Nature  was  so  real  to 
him  as  to  give  personality  even  to  inanimate  things.  Na- 
ture was  not  the  body  of  God  to  him,  but  God  was  the 
living  principle  in  all  things.  He  did  not  expect  the 
child  to  become  conscious  of  God  at  first,  but  he  did  wish 
it  to  recognise  life  in  all  the  growing  things  around  it, 
in  order  that  it  might  when  older  know  God  as  the  source 
of  life,  and  as  the  universal  life  essence.  Loving  com- 
panionship with  the  life  of  Nature  in  unconscious  child- 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OP  LIFE.       185 

hood  becomes  loving  unity  with  God  in  the  conscious 
life  of  maturity. 

Froebel  would  have  the  child  live  amid  the  life  of 
Nature  for  many  reasons.  He  did  not  believe  it  possible 
to  develop  the  religious  nature  of  man  fully  if  childhood 
has  not  received  through  association  with  Nature  con- 
ceptions of  life,  of  life  stimulation,  and  of  invisible  life 
behind  life,  as  the  source  of  life  and  the  guide  of  life. 
Such  experience  qualifies  for  the  recognition  of  spiritual 
life  and  of  a  spiritual  Creator.  The  reawakening  of  the 
trees  and  flowers  in  spring,  and  the  development  of  a 
butterfly  from  the  worm  through  the  chrysalis  stage, 
make  it  possible  to  conceive  the  idea  of  man's  resurrec- 
tion, and  by  analogy  reveal  death  as  a  joyous  transition 
into  a  broader,  freer  life,  and  not  as  the  end  of  life. 
Even  the  thought  of  the  love  of  the  Creator  grows  grad- 
ually in  the  mind  of  a  child  who  sees  the  loving  attention 
of  the  mother  birds,  and  recognises  through  this  the  lov- 
ing kindness  of  its  own  mother.  There  is  a  natural  pro- 
gressive sequence  in  the  recognition  of  the  love  of  bird 
or  domestic  animal,  of  mother  and  of  God.  The  highest 
ideal  in  relation  to  any  subject  is  never  possible  unless 
the  groundwork  for  the  mature  ideal  is  laid  in  corre- 
sponding experiences  of  a  kind  adapted  to  the  ages  pre- 
ceding maturity.  This  is  especially  true  of  abstract 
ideals.  They  can  not  find  a  sure  resting  place  in  the 
mind  unless  there  are  already  in  the  mind  symbolic  repre- 
sentations corresponding  to  them.  Nature  is  a  wondrous 
field  for  constructive  symbolism.  The  purest  men  and 
women  are  those  who  retain  through  life  their  responsive 
susceptibility  to  the  symbolic  teaching  and  companion- 
ship of  Nature. 


,Mi' 


■J    ■  »: 


il'..'i 


m^ 


186 


FROEBEL'S  EDUOATIONAL  LAWS. 


Froebel  hoped  to  reveal  progressive  evolution  to  high- 
er life  to  the  child  through  Nature.  Beginning  with  the 
least  developed  forms  of  vegetable  life,  Nature  presents 
a  continuous,  ascending  series  of  steps,  each  step  reveal- 
ing wider,  freer  life  as  we  rise  through  the  vegetable 
kingdom  and  animal  life  to  man  himself.  It  is  perfectly 
natural  to  carry  on  this  progressive  evolution  at  the 
proper  time  beyond  man  and  up  to  God,  the  invisible 
spiritual  life,  that  has  manifested  itself  through  the  unity 
and  the  life  of  Nature. 

He  urged  very  strongly  that  all  children  should  be 
trained  to  cultivate  plants,  partly  in  order  to  gratify 
their  natural  tendency  to  work  in  the  earth,  and  to  use 
their  interest  in  productive  activity  and  the  nurture  of 
living  things,  especially  plants  or  pets.  But  he  had 
higher  reasons  for  making  every  child  a  little  gardener, 
both  at  home  and  at  school.  Careful  culture  in  the 
preparation  of  the  soil  and  its  proper  enrichment,  cou- 
pled with  due  attention  to  watering,  weeding,  hoeing, 
and,  if  necessary,  to  pruning,  produces  plants  of  grander 
proportions,  greater  beauty,  and  richer  fruitfulness.  By 
these  results  the  child  not  only  learns  to  recognise  evolu- 
tion, but  it  also  sees  that  it  may  become  an  active  agent 
in  promoting  evolution.  It  gains  a  conception — at  first 
symbolic,  afterward  conscious — of  the  greatest  of  all 
truths — that  it  has  power  to  help  other  life  to  grow  to 
grander  life.  By  sowing  the  apparently  dead  seed,  which 
afterward  bursts  into  life  and  beauty,  it  learns  that  it 
has  power  to  start  life  to  grow  that  without  its  aid  might 
have  remained  for  ever  undeveloped.  The  teacher  or 
parent  does  not  require  to  point  the  lesson.  The  sym- 
bolism of  the  uncpnscipiis  stage  of  childhood  will  natu- 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OF  LIFE.   187 


igent 

first 

P  all 

^w  to 

rhieh 

[at  it 

light 

kr  or 

sym- 

latu- 


rally  become  transformed  into  conscious  character  in  due 
time.  It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  advantages 
of  a  training  that,  through  the  self-activity  of  a  child, 
reveals  to  it  the  two  vital  truths — that  it  may  aid  all 
life — human  life  as  well  as  plant  life — to  reach  a  higher 
condition  of  life,  and  that  it  may  bring  into  existence 
new  elements  of  living  power,  material  power,  intellec- 
tual power,  or  spiritual  power,  to  aid  in  unifying  and  up- 
lifting the  race.  The  formation  of  these  apperceptive 
centres  in  a  child's  mind  qualifies  it  for  the  highest  edu- 
cation it  can  ever  receive.  The  life  must  remain  com- 
paratively barren  in  which  these  ideals  have  not  been 
implanted.  The  time  to  implant  them  is  the  symbolic 
period  of  childhood,  and  the  process  is  the  nurture  of 
life  in  Nature.  The  phenomena  of  Nature  in  their 
everyday  manifestations  provide  most  appropriate  sym- 
bolism for  children.  They  are  thrice  blessed  whose  early 
life  is  stimulated  and  enriched  by  free  life  in  sympathy 
with  Nature's  life. 

Froebel's  fundamental  law,  as  we  have  seen,  is  unity, 
inner  connection,  or  interrelatedness.  The  perfect  rev- 
elation of  this  law  as  the  basis  of  the  social  organization 
of  the  race  by  the  union  of  consciously  responsible  in- 
dividuals he  made  the  chief  work  of  college  and  uni- 
versity training.  The  symbolic  foundation,  or  appercep- 
tive centres  for  such  a  perfect  revelation,  he  claimed 
must  be  gained  in  childhood  and  partly  from  Nature. 
He  regarded  a  tree  as  the  most  perfect  material  symbol 
of  unity. 

The  objects  and  processes  of  Nature  are,  in  Froebel'a 
opinion,  the  best  agencies  for  the  development  of  the 
imagination.    They  supply  the  greatest  variety  of  ele- 


■^ 


188 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


11 


ments  for  the  imagination  to  use,  and  they  stimulate  the 
child's  creative  faculty  in  many  lines  of  work,  laying 
the  foundation  for  constructive  imagery  in  maturity  in 
artistic,  scientific,  mathematical,  literary,  and  ethical 
work.  The  elements  of  life  and  progressive  evolution  in 
Nature  have  an  influence  on  the  imagination,  and  sug- 
gest to  the  mind  the  constructive  readjustment  of  its 
store  of  knowledge.  Nature  is  nowhere  a  mere  store- 
house of  elements.  She  transforms  inorganic  matter 
into  organized  life,  and  the  mind  is  roused  to  similar 
organic  work  by  familiarity  with  Nature's  processes. 

The  beauty,  the  symmetry,  the  harmony,  the  life, 
the  freedom,  the  purity,  the  majesty,  and  the  invisible 
forces  of  Nature  fill  the  mind  with  images  that  elevate 
and  ennoble  character.  When  these  pure  images  are 
photographed  on  the  sensitive  nature  of  childhood,  they 
can  never  be  eradicated.  When  the  pictures  are  devel- 
oped by  whatever  experiences  or  circumstances,  they  are 
still  pure,  and  help  to  counterbalance  the  evil  that  may 
come  into  our  lives.  What  better  thing  can  the  parents 
and  teachers  of  a  child  do  for  it  than  to  train  it  so  that, 
as  Wordsworth  said,  it  may  become  in  maturity — 

One  whose  heart  the  holy  forms 

Of  young  imagination  have  kept  pure. 

Wordsworth  expressed  in  many  exquisite  lines  the  puri- 
fying and  strengthening  influence  of  Nature  on  the  im- 
agination. The  Excursion  teems  with  rapturous  refer- 
ences such  as  these: 

...  Nature  fails  not  to  provide 
Impulse  and  utterance.  The  whispering  air 
Sends  inspiration  from  the  shadowy  heights 
And  blind  recesses  of  the  cavemed  rocks;       n 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OP  LIFE.       189 

While,  free  as  air,  o'er  printless  sands  we  march, 
And  pierce  the  gloom  of  her  majestic  woods, 
Roaming  or  resting  under  grateful  shade, 
In  peace  and  meditative  cheerfulness ; 
Where  Hying  things,  and  things  inanimate, 
Do  speak,  at  Heaven's  command,  to  eye  and  ear. 
And  speak  to  social  reason's  inner  sense. 
With  inarticulate  language. 

.  .  .  For  the  man 
Who,  in  this  spirit,  communes  with  the  forms 
Of  Nature ;  who,  with  understanding  heart. 
Doth  know  and  love  such  objects  as  excite 
No  morbid  passions,  no  disquietude. 
No  vengeance,  and  no  hatred,  needs  must  feel 
So  deeply,  that,  unsatisfied  with  aught 
Less  pure  and  exquisite,  he  can  not  choose 
But  seek  for  objects  of  a  kindred  love 
In  fellow  natures  and  a  kindred  joy. 


The  child's  first  questionings  are  about  Nature  if  it 
lives  close  to  her.  The  spirit  of  investigation,  the  won- 
der spirit,  the  power  of  problem  discovery,  is  aroused 
and  developed  more  fully  by  her  myriad  mysteries  than 
in  any  other  way.  She  has  unsolved  questions  adapted 
to  early  childhood,  and  continues  to  reveal  new  phe- 
nomena to  match  man's  unfolding  powers. 

There  is  a  never-failing  field  of  intense  interest  to  a 
child  in  friendly  association  and  intimate  acquaintance 
with  birds,  butterflies,  bees,  beetles,  ants,  and  worms. 
The  child  attaches  a  personality  to  each  of  them,  and 
will  spend  hours  in  watching  them  at  their  work.  It 
needs  little  tact  on  the  part  of  mother  or  teacher  to 
make  their  interest  reverent  instead  of  destructive,  as  it 
too  often  is.    Mother's  example  is  better  than  her  pre- 


M: 


190 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


1 ' 


mm 

m4 


W! 


cepts.  A  wise  mother  will  promise  the  little  one  a  visit 
to-morrow  to  new  friends,  and,  when  the  child  has  been 
prepared  for  a  visit  as  carefully  as  if  going  to  visit  at  a 
friend's  house,  will  take  it  by  the  hand  and  lead  it  per- 
haps to  an  ant's  nest,  and,  seating  herself  with  her  child 
where  they  will  not  disturb  the  ants,  will  say,  "  Good 
morning,  little  ants;  we  have  come  to  see  you  at  work." 
The  child  will  be  more  interested  in  such  a  visit  than 
in  going  to  a  neighbour's  house.  Mothers,  too,  may 
leam  many  interesting  things  from  their  insect  neigh- 
hours. 

After  a  few  such  visits,  the  child  may  be  trusted  to 
go  alone  among  its  flying  or  creeping  friends,  and  it  will 
often  spend  several  hours  each  day  in  loving  companion- 
ship with  them,  sometimes  talking  to  them  as  if  they 
were  able  to  understand  all  it  said.  Who  can  tell  what 
symbolic  representations  of  life  and  work  are  taken  into 
the  child's  unconscious  life  during  these  visits?  How 
the  imagination  grows  as  each  nest  is  filled  with  im- 
aginary characters!  What  tales  are  told  to  the  child 
even  by  the  worms!  That  ant  performing  its  allotted 
task  preaches  a  sermon  to  the  child  better  for  it  than 
the  formal  theology  of  the  minister.  What  songs  of  joy 
and  merriment  the  birds  and  crickets  sing!  How  con- 
tentedly the  bees  hum  at  their  work!  These  stories 
and  sermons  and  songs  weave  themselves  into  the  fibre 
of  the  child's  nature,  and  give  sweetness  and  vigour  and 
charm  to  its  whole  life.  The  simple  fact  that  by  such 
association  the  child  is  trained  to  love  birds,  animals, 
and  insects,  and  to  be  kind  to  them  instead  of  cruel, 
makes  a  marked  difference  in  its  character. 

Froebel  urged  parents  and  teachers  to  take  their 


»ne  a  visit 

[  has  been 

visit  at  a 

ad  it  per- 

her  child 

y,  "  Good 

at  work." 

visit  than 

too,  may 

3ct  neigh' 

trusted  to 
ind  it  will 
)mpanion- 
Eis  if  they 

tell  what 
taken  into 
ts?    How 

with  im- 
the  child 
;s  allotted 
)r  it  than 
igs  of  joy 
How  con- 
se  stories 

the  fibre 
igour  and 
t  by  such 

animals, 

of  cruel, 

ake  their 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OF  LIFE.       191 

children  and  pupils  regularly  for  walks  into  the  coun- 
try and,  if  possible,  into  the  heart  of  Nature  in  the  woods, 
and  by  the  speaking  waters  of  stream,  or  lake,  or  sea. 
"  It  is  so  important,"  he  says,  "  that  boys  and  adults 
should  go  into  the  fields  and  forests  together  striving  to 
receive  into  their  hearts  and  minds  the  life  and  spirit  of 
Nature,  which  would  soon  put  an  end  to  the  idle,  useless, 
and  indolent  loafing  of  so  many  boys." 

In  all  such  excursions,  and  in  all  the  child's  experi- 
ence with  Nature,  he  taught  that  the  life  in  Nature 
should  be  reverenced.  He  would  not  allow  animals  or 
insects  to  be  tortured,  or  plant  life  to  be  recklessly  de- 
stroyed, for  the  gratification  of  misguided  interest  or  of 
a  passionate  love  for  flower  beauty.  He  aimed  to  make 
love  of  flower  life  develop  into  a  desire  to  help  flower 
life  to  better,  stronger,  higher  life  by  attention  and  cul- 
ture, as  a  revelation  of  power  to  aid  all  life,  instead  of 
leading  to  selfishness  and  sensuality  by  allowing  the 
child  to  destroy  the  life  of  the  flower  to  satisfy  his  pas- 
sionate love  for  it.  Love  that  becomes  mere  desire  for 
possession  is  always  debasing.  The  greater  the  power  of 
any  element  of  character  to  elevate,  the  greater  its  power 
to  degrade  if  misused. 

If  children  are  allowed  to  pull  the  wild  flowers  in 
the  woods  without  restraint,  they  will  do  so  to  gratify  the 
desire  for  possession  of  the  thing  that  gives  them  pleas- 
ure. Persistence  in  such  a  course  must  lead  to  evil.  The 
children  will  become  careless  about  the  destruction  of 
life,  and  reverence  for  life  is  a  most  important  part  of  a 
child's  training.  They  will  learn  to  believe  that  desire 
should  always  lead  to  possession — a  most  immoral  prin- 
ciple that  all  training  should  counteract.    Liberty  to  the 


I    !  1' 


192 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


m'4 


lUh 


child  in  the  gratification  of  desire  for  beautiful  things 
leads  to  libertinism  in  the  gratification  of  desire  for 
beautiful  things  in  manhood.  Flower  love  is  a  sacred 
feeling,  but  when  it  degenerates  in  childhood  into  mere 
selfish  desire  for  possession,  as  it  is  nearly  always  allowed 
to  do,  it  becomes  a  sure  germ  for  sensuality  in  manhood. 
Sensuality  is  but  the  debasement  of  sacred  feelings. 
The  boy  who  is  allowed  to  destroy  flower  life  to  satisfy 
desire  is  being  trained  to  sacrifice  other  life  and  beauty 
for  his  selfish  gratification  in  manhood.  Self-restraint 
is  one  of  the  most  essential  moral  forces;  self-indulgence, 
even  in  pure  and  beautiful  things,  is  always  destructive 
of  character.  This  is  especially  true  when  life  of  any 
kind  is  saved  by  the  self-restraint  or  sacrificed  by  the 
self-indulgence. 

Froebel  made  it  a  special  aim  to  lead  children  to  ad- 
mire beautiful  things  without  developing  a  desire  for 
their  possession.  In  his  light  songs  the  foundation  for 
this  important  character  development  is  laid.  In  deal- 
ing with  flowers  and  other  beautiful  things  in  Nature 
the  same  principle  is  carefully  followed.  What  a  change 
would  be  effected  in  the  character  of  the  race  if  Froebel's 
principle  were  universally  carried  out  in  the  training 
of  childhood! 

Reverence  for  life  developed  through  the  nurture  of 
life  should  receive  careful  attention  in  all  primary 
schools.  Children  should  sow  seeds  in  boxes  in  the 
school  windows  and  in  beds  in  the  schoolyards,  and  the 
children  themselves  should  be  trained  to  supply  the 
needs  of  the  flowers.  The  plants  grown  by  the  children 
will  form  the  most  interesting  basis  for  observation  les- 
sons, and  for  language  and  reading  lessons;  but  by  far 


■  If 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OP  LIFE.       193 


ul  things 
lesire  for 

a  sacred 
iito  mere 
s  allowed 
nanhood. 

feelings, 
to  satisfy 
id  beauty 
-restraint 
iulgenee, 
sstructive 
'e  of  any 
d  by  the 

en  to  ad- 
esire  for 
ition  for 
In  deal- 
Nature 
change 
roebel's 
raining 

rture  of 
primary 

in  the 
and  the 
ply  the 
hildren 
ion  les- 

by  far 


the  most  important  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  flowers 
is  reverence  for  life,  and  a  consciousness  that  each  child 
has  power  to  help  other  life  to  better  life. 

The  study  of  Nature  has  greatly  enriched  school 
courses  in  material  for  thought,  and  has  also  led  to  an  im- 
provement and  extension  in  the  form  studies.  Making, 
modelling,  and  painting  are  finding  a  place  in  schools  as 
means  of  expression  largely  through  the  attention  paid 
to  Nature  study. 

Throughout  England  many  societies  have  recently 
been  organized  to  protect  flowers,  and  to  extend  the  love 
of  flowers  by  sowing  seeds  and  planting  bulbs  and  roots 
in  waste  places.  Another  aim  of  the  societies  is  to  awaken 
an  interest  in  window  gardening  in  the  homes  of  work- 
ing people.  These  societies  are  called  "  Mary's  Meadow 
Societies,"  and  they  are  named  after  Mrs.  Evans's  charm- 
ing little  book,  entitled  Mary's  Meadow.  Every  school 
in  the  world  should  be  a  "  Mary's  Meadow  Society." 
The  training  in  love  of  flowers,  in  reverence  for  flower 
life,  in  flower  nurture,  and  in  desire  to  add  to  the  happi- 
ness of  others  by  increased  attention  to  flower  culture 
would  be  a  most  important  element  in  moral  training. 
Schools  in  different  continents  or  widely  separated  parts 
of  continents  might  exchange  wild-flower  seeds,  and  thus 
the  range  of  beautiful  wild-flower  growth  might  be 
greatly  extended. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Meiningen,  Froebel  wrote 
very  strongly  about  the  advantages  of  the  study  of  Na- 
ture. After  describing  his  joyous  experiences  in  the 
classes,  and  especially  in  the  museum  in  Berlin,  where 
he  found  that  "  what  he  had  recognised  in  things  great 
or  noble,  or  in  the  life  of  man,  or  in  the  ways  of  God, 


fl* 


ili^ 


r  •         ! 

I 

■t-      '      ^ 

■ 

194 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


as  serving  toward  the  development  of  the  human  race, 
he  could  recognise  also  in  the  smallest  of  these  fixed 
forms  which  Nature  alone  had  shaped,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  Nature  and  man  now  seem  to  me  mutually  to  ex- 
plain each  other,  through  all  their  numberless,  various 
stages  of  development; "  and  concludes  by  saying  that 
he  became  "  penetrated  and  absorbed  by  the  thought " 
that  the  "foundation  for  and  the  guidance  toward  a 
knowledge  of  himself  and  of  life,  and  a  preparation  for 
the  manifestation  of  that  knowledge"  which  man  re- 
ceives through  sympathetic  love  and  study  of  Nature, 
"  is  beyond  all  else  vital  to  man's  culture  and  develop- 
ment, to  the  sure  attainment  of  his  destiny  and  fulfil- 
ment of  his  vocation." 

Froebel  pleaded  in  a  hundred  ways  for  the  "  tender 
fostering  of  the  primitive  and  natural  inclinations  of 
every  human  being  in  the  germ  "  in  childhood.  Unless 
they  are  so  fostered  he  has  no  hope  of  perfect  develop- 
ment in  manhood.  In  his  own  life,  he  says  gratefully, 
they  were  satisfied  by  "  the  influence  of  Nature,  of  use- 
ful handiwork  and  religious  feelings."  His  friend  Dies- 
terweg  recommends  a  similar  course  of  early  training  for 
childhood.  Speaking  of  his  own  training,  he  says: 
"From  my  youth  I  loved  the  woods  and  mountains. 
We  boys  spent  more  time  in  the  mountains,  the  woods, 
and  the  founderies  than  we  did  in  the  schools."  Words- 
worth describes  himself  as  one — 

.  .  .  Whose  favourite  school 
Hath  been  the  fields,  the  roads,  and  rural  lanes. 

All  three  make  Nature  the  best  friend  of  childhood,  the 
atmosphere  which  nourishes  the  germs  of  pure  and  noble 
character.  I 


NATURE  AS  THE  REVEALER  OP  LIFE.       196 


n  race^ 
e  fixed 
3  on  to 
r  to  ex- 
various 
ig  that 
)ught " 
ward  a 
ion  for 
lan  re- 
^ature, 
evelop- 
[  fulfil- 

tender 
ions  of 
Unless 
evelop- 
tefully, 
of  use- 
i  Dies- 
ing  for 
J  says: 
ntains. 
woods, 
^ords- 


)d,  the 
noble 


Wordsworth,  the  philosophic  poet  of  Nature,  so  ap- 
propriately complements  Froebel,  the  poet-philosopher 
of  Nature,  it  seems  fitting  to  allow  him  to  be  the  final 
interpreter  of  Froebers  views  in  regard  to  the  subject 
they  both  understood  so  well: 

.  .  .  Nature  never  did  betray 
The  heart  that  loved  her. 

Come  forth  into  the  light  of  things, 
Let  Nature  be  your  teacher. 

Sweet  is  the  lore  which  Nature  brings. 

To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears. 

.  .  .  What  good  is  given  to  men. 
More  solid  than  the  gilded  clouds  of  heaven, 
What  joy  more  lasting  than  a  vernal  flower. 

.  .  .  For  I  have  learned 
To  look  on  Nature,  not  as  in  the  hour 
Of  thoughtless  youth. 

And  I  have  felt 
A  presence  that  disturbs  me  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts ;  a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man : 
A  motion  and  a  spirit,  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things.    Therefore  am  I  still 
A  lover  of  the  meadows,  and  the  woods, 
And  mountains ;  and  of  all  that  we  behold 
From  this  green  earth ;  of  all  the  mighty  world 
U 


h 


\  I'r. 


196 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


Of  eye  and  ear,  both  what  they  half  create, 
Aod  what  perceive ;  well  pleased  to  recognise 
In  Nature  and  the  language  of  the  sense 
T?ie  awhor  of  my  purest  thouyhta,  the  nurse^ 
7%e  guitUt  the  guardian  of  my  heart,  atid  soul 
Of  all  my  moral  beirtg. 


■.»'  i' 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


CORRELATION  OF  STUDIES. 


Correlation  is  defined  as  "mutual  or  reciprocal 
relation,  or  the  act  of  bringing  under  relations  of  union 
correspondence  or  interaction."  * 

Froebcl  regarded  unity  or  inner  connection  as  the 
most  important  law  in  education,  and  comprehended  it 
more  fully  than  any  other  educator.  He  did  not  write 
so  much  about  correlation  as  Herbart  under  the  title  cor- 
relation, but  he  made  it  a  foundation  law  of  his  system, 
not  alone  in  legard  to  studies,  as  we  have  seen  in  Chapter 
III,  but  in  regard  to  the  stages  of  man's  development; 
the  training  of  his  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual 
nature;  the  culture  of  his  receptive,  reflective,  and  ex- 
ecutive powers;  the  relationship  of  Nature,  man,  and 
God,  and  of  the  individual  and  the  race;  and  the  har- 
monizing of  apparent  opposites.  He  wrought  unity  into 
every  part  of  his  system  so  far  as  he  completed  it.  The 
kindergarten  is  still  the  most  perfect  educational  type 
of  correlation.  In  every  good  kindergarten  there  is  a 
clearly  defined  central  purpose  in  the  work  of  every  day 
to  which  every  song,  story,  occupation,  and  game  is  re- 


m 


*  The  Standard  Dictionary. 
197 


f 

1 

'  ;  r 

r 

( 

I'.l 

■ 

I 

m 


M;"rf 


198 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


lated.  This  is  equally  true  of  the  work  of  each  week  or 
month.  The  work  of  the  year  should  be  an  organic 
whole,  and  in  the  outline  plan  of  the  kindergartner  the 
work  of  each  month,  and  week,  and  day  should  be  log- 
ically related  to  this  whole.  While  sufficiently  elastic 
to  admit  of  infinite  variety,  and  to  take  advantage  of 
incidental  occurrences  and  circumstances,  the  kinder- 
gartner's  plan  should  be  definite,  and  framed  with  a  con- 
scious purpose.  There  can  be  no  haphazard  work  in  the 
kindergarten  if  it  is  conducted  in  accordance  with  Froe- 
beFs  principles.  Each  year  should  accomplish  a  certain 
part  in  the  child's  evolution,  and  each  month,  and  week, 
and  day  should  have  its  part  in  the  natural  evolution. 
It  is  admitted  that  the  kindergarten  is  the  best  educa- 
tional type  of  correlation,  and,  as  an  objective  repre- 
sentation of  correlation,  it  is  helping  to  make  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject  known  and  its  principles  clear. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Froebel  was  unable  to  organize 
his  system  more  fully  above  the  kindergarten. 

His  most  distinctive  characteristic  as  an  educator 
was  his  organization  of  every  fundamental  principle  into 
educational  methods.  His  ability  in  thus  reducing  theo- 
ries to  practice  was  so  marked  that  Mr.  Bowen  says  of 
him:  "All  the  ideas  which  he  used  may  in  a  sense  be 
called  his  from  the  way  in  which  he  organized  them  and 
applied  them  to  education." 

While  a  boy  at  the  school  in  Stadt-Ilm,  wher«  he 
went  to  live  with  his  uncle  when  he  was  ten  years  of  age, 
he  noticed  the  utter  lack  of  interrelation  or  connected- 
ness between  the  studies.  Writing  of  his  experiences  at 
that  period,  he  says:  "  In  physical  geography  we  repeated 
our  tasks  parrotwise,  speaking  much  and  knowing  noth' 


CORRELATION  OF  STUDIBa 


199 


ing;  for  the  teaching  on  this  subject  had  not  the  very 
least  connection  with  real  life,  nor  had  it  any  actuality 
for  us,  although  at  the  same  time  we  could  rightly  name 
our  little  specks  and  patches  of  colour  on  the  map.  I  re- 
ceived private  tuitioh  in  this  subject  also.  My  teacher 
wished  to  advance  further  with  me;  he  took  me  to  Eng- 
land. I  could  find  no  connection  between  that  country 
and  the  place  and  country  in  which  I  dwelt  myself;  so 
that  of  this  instruction  also  I  retained  but  little.  As 
for  actual  instruction  in  German,  it  was  not  to  be 
thought  of;  but  we  received  directions  in  letter  writing 
and  spelling.  I  do  not  know  with  what  study  the  teach- 
ing of  spelling  was  connected,  but  I  think  it  was  not  con- 
nected with  any;  it  hovered  in  the  air." 

While  attending  lectures  in  Berlin  he  maintained 
himself  by  teaching  in  a  private  school.  Here,  too,  he 
noted  the  fact  that  there  was  a  lack  of  "  unity  in  the 
course  of  instruction.  Everywhere  I  sought  for  recog- 
nition of  the  quickening  interconnection  of  parts,  and 
for  the  exposition  of  the  inner  all-pervading  reign  of  law. 
Only  a  few  lectures  made  some  poor  approach  to  such 
methods,  but  I  found  nothing  of  the  sort  in  those  which 
were  most  important  to  me,  physics  and  mathematics. 
Especially  repugnant  to  me  was  the  piecemeal  patch- 
work offered  to  us  in  geometry,  always  separating  and 
dividing,  never  uniting  and  consolidating." 

When,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  he  was  a  teacher  of 
three  boys  in  a  private  family,  his  dominant  ideal  began 
to  define  itself  more  clearly.  Writing  of  this  period,  he 
says:  "  What  especially  lay  heavy  upon  me  at  this  time 
was  the  utter  absence  of  any  organized  connection  be- 
tween the  subjects  of  education." 


I*: 


1^,     ^•A      «k      ^n        f 


200 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


When  twenty-six  years  of  age  he  took  his  three  lads 
with  him  to  Yverdun,  in  order  that  he  might  study  the 
system  and  methods  of  Pestalozzi.  Again  he  was  dis- 
appointed. He  found  inspiration  and  many  new  methods 
of  teaching  individual  subjects,  but  the  inner  connection 
for  which  he  longed  above  all  else  was  wanting.  "  Each 
separate  branch  of  education,"  he  writes,  "  was  in  such 
1  condition  as  to  powerfully  interest,  but  never  wholly  to 
content  the  observer,  since  it  prepared  only  further  di- 
vision and  separation  and  did  not  tend  toward  unity. 
The  want  of  unity  of  effort,  both  as  to  means  and  aims, 
I  soon  felt;  I  recognised  it  in  the  inadequacy,  the  in- 
completeness, and  the  unlikeness  of  the  ways  in  which 
the  various  subjects  were  taught."  Summing  up  the 
results  of  his  two  years*  study  of  Pestalozzi's  work  at 
Yverdun,  he  says:  "  On  the  whole,  I  passed  a  glorious 
time  at  Yverdun,  elevated  in  tone,  and  critically  de- 
cisive for  my  after  life.  At  its  close,  however,  I  felt  more 
clearly  than  ever  the  deficiency  of  inner  unity  and  inter- 
dependence, as  well  as  of  outward  comprehensiveness 
and  thoroughness  in  the  teaching  there."  So  strongly 
was  he  impressed  by  this  conception  of  the  lack  of  a 
proper  correlation  of  the  subjects  of  education  that  he 
made  the  revealing  of  unity  as  the  fundamental  law  of 
education  the  aim  of  his  life.  "  I  became  impelled  by  an 
irresistible  impulse  toward  the  setting  forth  of  unity  and 
simplicity  with  all  the  force,  both  of  my  pen  and  of  my 
life,  in  the  shape  of  an  educational  system.  I  felt  that 
education  as  well  as  science  would  gain  by  what  I  may 
call  a  more  human,  related,  affiliated,  connected  treat- 
ment and  consideration  of  the  subjects  of  education." 

To  reveal  connectedness  became  the  great  purpose  of 


m 


CORRELATION  OP  STUDIES. 


201 


his  lifa  He  did  not  confine  connectedness  to  the  sub- 
jects of  instruction.  He  regarded  it  as  the  vital  law  of 
human  development,  and  taught  that  the  chief  work 
of  the  colleges  and  universities  lies  in  defining  man's 
ideals  of  social  unity  and  racial  interrelationship.  The 
Committee  of  Fifteen  agree  with  this  view.  Their  re- 
port says:  "  For  higher  education  seems  to  have  as  its 
province  the  correlation  of  the  several  branches  of  human 
learning  in  the  unity  of  the  spiritual  view  furnished  by 
religion  to  our  civilization."  Limiting  the  meaning  of 
unity,  connectedness,  or  correlation  to  the  subjects  of 
study,  Froebel  made  Nature  the  connecting  centre 
through  which  the  child  could  be  most  easily  and  most 
completely  led  to  study  other  subjects.  He  objected 
strongly  to  any  formal,  artificial,  or  mechanical  affilia- 
tion between  the  subjects.  Each  study  should  be  re- 
lated to  the  central  subject  directly  and  logically  as  part 
of  an  essential  process  in  its  complete  unfolding.  Under 
the  general  term  "  Nature "  he  included  mineralogy, 
geology,  chemistry,  crystallography,  botany,  zoology,  bi- 
ology, physics,  and  for  the  purposes  of  a  central  relating 
study  he  included  objects  constructed  by  man  as  well 
as  the  works  of  God. 

He  related  language  and  grammar  to  Nature  because 
"  complete  preparation  for  a  thorough  knowledge  of  lan^ 
guage  and  thorough  skill  in  its  use  implies  three  things: 
First,  the  observation  of  the  sensuous  objects  of  lan- 
guage— the  observation  of  the  outer  world;  secondly, 
the  observation  of  language  and  objects  in  connection 
with  one  another,  passing  from  the  outer  to  the  inner 
world — exercise  in  language;  lastly,  observation  of  lan- 
guage as  such,  without  reference  to  the  objects  desig- 


202 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


;"<i 


nated — ^gramratical  exercises."  As  Nature  presents 
concrete  objects  she  gives  the  child  clear  conceptions, 
and  clear  thinking  is  the  basis  of  exact  language.  As 
she  presents  such  varied  forms  and  conditions  it  requires 
an  enlarging  vocabulary  to  express  the  thoughts  she 
arouses.  As  she  reveals  her  fundamental  laws  and  meth- 
ods of  growth  she  leads  to  classification  of  conceptions, 
and  therefore  to  logical  thought  and  expression.  Lan- 
guage can  be  readily  and  profitably  co-ordinated  with 
Nature  study.  He  found  it  very  hard  to  study  a  foreign 
language,  especially  its  grammar,  in  the  fragmentary 
manner  in  which  it  is  usually  taught,  and  felt  the  need 
of  connectedness  in  some  way  between  his  own  personal 
life  and  purposes  and  the  language  he  attempted  to  learn. 
In  describing  his  efforts  to  learn  Latin,  he  says:  "  It  al- 
ways seemed  to  me  as  if  the  mere  outer  acquisition  of 
a  language  could  but  little  help  forward  my  true  inner 
desire  for  knowledge,  which  was  deeply  in  earnest  and 
was  the  result  of  my  own  free  choice.  But  wherever 
the  knowledge  of  language  linked  itself  to  definite  ex- 
ternal impressions,  and  I  was  able  to  perceive  its  con- 
nection with  facts — as,  for  instance,  in  the  scientific 
nomenclature  of  botany — I  could  quickly  make  myself 
master  of  it."  The  development  of  the  language  power 
has  been  too  artificial  in  the  schools.  Composition  and 
oral  expression  have  been  divorced  from  the  life  of  the 
child.  The  clear  expression  of  the  definite  thought  in 
the  child's  mind  immediately  associated  with  the  subject 
under  consideration  has  received  little  attention,  and 
composition  has  been  assigned  at  remote  periods,  the 
subjects  usually  being  abstractions  of  a  most  uninterest- 
ing character.    Little  wonder  that  it  has  been  one  of 


CORRELATION  OF  STUDIES. 


203 


the  least  profitable  and  most  formal  exercises  of  the 
school. 

The  leaders  in  educational  work  are  beginning  to 
learn  that  the  accurate  expression  of  the  results  of  a 
pupil's  own  investigation  in  science  or  literature  or 
mathematics  or  history  in  the  regular  work  of  the  school- 
room, both  orally  and  in  written  form,  is  the  best  way 
to  develop  the  language  power,  and  define  the  power  of 
accurate  thinking.  Accurate  thinking  leads  to  accuracy 
of  expression,  and  accuracy  of  expression  defines  accu- 
rate thinking.  This  idea  of  composition  in  connection 
with  the  regular  work  of  the  child  is  FroebeFs  idea  of 
the  true  correlation  of  language  with  other  subjects. 
He  objected  to  have  any  of  the  language  departments — 
reading,  writing,  spelling,  composition,  grammar,  or  lit- 
erature— "  hovering  in  the  air."  They  should  be  sug- 
by  the  other  subjects  of  study  and  should  react  upon 
them.  As  Nature  in  all  its  forms  is  deeply  interesting 
to  children,  and  affords  infinite  opportunities  for  inves- 
tigation appropriate  to  all  ages,  through  which  definite 
ideas  may  be  received,  he  made  the  observation  of  ex- 
ternal things  the  basis  for  language  work,  especially  in 
earlier  years. 

But  the  observation  or  study  of  Nature  in  any  of  her 
departments  was  never  to  be  made  for  the  purpose  of 
cultivating  language.  That  would  be  unnatural,  arti- 
ficial, direct  correlation.  The  Nature  study — ^botany, 
zoology,  chemistry,  or  whatever  the  subject  may  be — 
should  be  studied  for  itself,  and  the  language  develop- 
ment should  arise  from  the  necessary  explanation  of  the 
ideas  discovered  or  newly  revealed.  Ideas  naturally  de- 
mand expression,  and  the  whole  work  of  the  school 


204 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


n  i'> 


m 


should  have  the  effect  of  fostering  and  strengthening 
this  tendency.  Ideas  are  only  half  alive  if  they  are  only 
conceived,  and  they  soon  die  if  not  expressed  in  some 
form.  Language  should  therefore  be  associated  with 
every  subject,  and  may  for  this  reason  be  regarded  in  a 
sense  as  a  correlating  subject. 

Froebel  would  correlate  mathematics,  too,  with  the 
study  of  Nature.  "  Man  needs,"  he  says,  "  a  fixed  point 
and  a  safe  guide  in  the  study  of  the  inner  connection  of 
all  the  manifold  diversity  of  Nature.  What  can  furnish  a 
more  reliable  and  uniting  starting  point  in  this  than 
that  which  appears  as  the  source  from  which  all  diversity 
develops  itself,  the  visible  expression  of  all  law  and 
obedience  to  law — viz.,  mathematics?"  "As  a  phe- 
nomcnon  of  both  the  inner  and  the  outer  world,  mathe- 
matics belongs  equally  to  man  and  Nature."  "  There- 
fore  it  is  possible  to  study  Nature  in  her  forms  and  or- 
ganisms and  with  the  help  of  the  formulated  laws  of 
human  thought  in  mathematics." 

"  Mathematics  is  the  expression  of  the  inner  cause 
and  of  the  outer  limitations  and  properties  of  space.  As 
it  originates  in  unity,  it  is  in  itself  a  unity;  and  as  space 
implies  diversity  in  direction,  shape,  and  extension,  it 
follows  that  number,  form,  and  magnitude  mutually  im- 
ply one  another,  and  are  an  inseparable  three  in  unity." 

"  Mathematics  appears  as  a  mediator  between  man 
and  Nature,  between  the  inner  and  the  outer  world." 

He  claimed  that  the  study  of  mineralogy,  geology, 
chemistry,  physics,  zoology,  biology,  botany,  and  even 
geography,  in  high  schools,  colleges,  and  universities 
must  be  to  a  considerable  extent  dead  formalism  if  the 
proper  germ  centres  e^r^  not  formed  in  early  childhood 


l('*^^ 


m.i 


CORRELATION  OP  STUDIES. 


205 


by  intimate  companionship  with  Nature.  A  true  study 
of  the  sciences  at  maturity  results  from  a  loving  appre- 
ciation of  Nature's  processes  and  a  reverent  recognition 
of  the  life  and  beauty  of  Nature  in  childhood.  Interest 
in  the  life  itself  in  early  years  leads  in  due  time  to  a 
deeper  interest  in  the  origin  of  life  and  the  infinite  vari- 
ety of  its  manifestations  and  their  scientific  classifica- 
tions. Study  stimulated  by  such  interest  is  most  edu- 
cative, and  it  is  likely  to  lead  the  student  to  original  inves- 
tigation beyond  the  limits  of  discovered  knowledge.  A 
really  vital  education  does  not  leave  a  man  satisfied  with 
truth  as  already  revealed.  It  arouses  a  greater  wonder 
power  in  regard  to  undiscovered  truth,  and  inspires  a 
determination  to  add  to  the  treasures  of  knowledge,  that 
present  happiness  and  future  development  may  be  more 
complete.  Here,  again,  Froebel  finds  his  loftiest  inter- 
preter, his  kindred  soul,  in  Wordsworth.  After  describ- 
ing the  joyousness  of  true  intercourse  with  Nature,  and 
the  elevation  of  mind  and  spirit  resulting  from  the 
recognition  of  her  life,  and  majesty,  and  evolutionary 
development,  ht  ^ays: 

.  .  .  Science  then 
Shall  be  a  precious  visitant ;  and  then, 
And  only  then,  be  worthy  of  her  name. 
For  then  her  heart  shall  kindle ;  her  dull  eye 
Dull  and  inanimate,  no  more  shall  hang 
Chained  to  its  object  in  brute  slavery ; 
But  taught  with  patient  interest  to  watch 
The  processes  of  things,  and  serve  the  cause 
Of  order  and  distinctness,  not  for  this 
Shall  it  forget  that  its  most  noble  use. 
Its  most  illustrious  province  must  be  found 
In  furnishing  clear  guidance,  a  support 
Not  treapheroup  to  the  mind's  e^ursive  pow^r. 


'I' 


■i.;i' 


I 


ife 


206     PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 

So  build  we  up  the  being  that  we  are; 

Thus  deeply  drinking  in  the  soul  of  things, 

We  shall  be  wise  perforce ;  and  while  inspired 

By  choice,  and  conscious  that  the  will  is  free, 

Unswerving  shall  we  move,  as  if  impelled 

By  strict  necessity,  along  the  path 

Of  order  and  of  good.    Whate'er  we  see, 

Whatever  we  feel,  by  agency  direct 

Or  indirect,  shall  tend  to  feed  and  nurse 

Our  faculties,  shall  fix  in  calmer  seats 

Of  moral  strength,  and  raise  to  loftier  heights 

Of  love  divine,  our  intellectual  soul. 

The  visible  forms  of  expression,  writing,  modelling, 
painting,  and  drawing,  he  would  also  correlate  with  Na- 
ture study.  Writing  he  makes  the  expression  of  thought 
in  visible  language,  so  that  it  receives  its  connectedness 
through  language  as  spelling  and  reading  do.  The  child 
can  not  find  any  things  more  appropriate  for  modelling, 
painting,  and  drawing  than  natural  objects.  Froebel 
himself  says:  "To  the  contemplation  of  the  external 
world,  and  especially  to  that  of  the  plant  world,  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  sense  of  colour  and  form,  which  is  the 
introduction  to  drawing  and  painting,  is  closely  at- 
tached." Number  he  associated  in  its  first  steps  with 
these  subjects,  the  child,  for  illustration,  having  to  count 
the  two  eyes,  two  arms,  two  legs,  five  fingers,  five  toes, 
in  drawing  a  man,  or  the  six  legs  of  a  beetle,  the  number 
of  petals  in  a  flower,  in  drawing  these  objects.  Thus  the 
new  revelation  of  the  quantitative  relationship  as  ex- 
pressed by  number  comes  to  the  child  incidentally,  and 
not  as  a  formal  lesson  on  number  given  with  objects. 
The  objects  used  by  Froebel  are  used  always  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  a  definite  purpose  of  self-expression. 


CORRELATION  OP  STUDIES. 


207 


and  not  as  mere  representatives  of  number.  The  lessons 
in  number  illustrated  by  objects,  as  taught  by  most  mod- 
ern teachers,  are  very  much  inferior  to  Froebel's  ele- 
mentary lessons  in  number.  He  introduced  the  child 
to  number  in  many  other  ways  in  addition  to  the  number 
work  in  connection  with  modelling,  painting,  and  draw- 
ing. In  his  occupations  in  the  kindergarten  and  in  the 
work  with  the  gifts  number,  form,  and  space  concepts 
are  constantly  defined,  and  always  defined  incidentally 
as  an  essential  and  natural  part  of  the  work  in  hand. 

Dr.  Harris,  in  a  report  on  St.  Louis  schools,  in  speak- 
ing of  children  in  the  kindergarten,  says:  "  Geometry 
and  arithmetic  seem  to  unfold  simultaneously  in  the 
minds  of  the  pupils." 

Geography  in  its  elementary  study  is  almost  entirely 
a  department  of  Nature  study.  In  order  to  make  the 
study  intelligible  to  children,  they  must  have  clearly  de- 
fined concepts  relating  to  the  varied  forms  of  the  earth's 
surface,  which  they  have  received  through  their  own  ex- 
perience with  mother  earth.  They  must  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  soil  of  hills  and  valelys,  and  of  the  influence 
of  streams  and  storms  on  different  kinds  of  soil.  Chil- 
dren in  cities  who  are  without  such  clear  concepts  must 
be  made  acquainted  with  them  by  their  teachers  in  excur- 
sions to  the  country  or  to  the  suburbs  of  the  city  after 
heavy  showers;  but  even  by  this  plan  the  necessary  con- 
ceptions required  as  apperceptive  centres  can  never  be 
given  so  thoroughly  as  they  are  received  by  the  child  who 
has  lived  in  the  country  always,  and  who  has  become 
acquainted  with  the  features  of  mother  earth  almost  a^ 
fully  as  with  those  of  its  own  mother. 

Froebel  aimed  to  define  and  extend  the  boy's  knowl- 


J 


208 


PROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


i  H 


j.H 


*'•}': 


ii. 


edge  of  the  conditions  of  the  earth's  surface  in  connec- 
tion with  the  study  of  botany.  "Botany,"  he  writes, 
"  is  connected  in  a  perfectly  organic  way  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  surface  of  the  earth;  for  many  plants  are 
companions  of  the  water,  and  grow  on  the  border  of 
brook  and  river,  and  give  beauty  to  the  springs  of  both; 
many  plants  prefer  to  deck  the  turf  of  the  meadow  and 
valley,  and  many  love  the  clear,  fresh,  balmy  air  of  hill 
or  mountain  top;  many  the  neighbourhood  of  man,  and 
many  the  deep  recesses  of  the  woodland;  many  the  ocean 
ships  bring  us  from  distant  parts  of  the  world."  Inci- 
dentally by  the  study  of  botany,  or  indeed  any  extended 
study  of  Nature,  the  boy  becomes  acquainted  with  the 
surface  of  the  earth  so  thoroughly  that  geographical 
study  may  be  properly  based  on  the  apperceptive  centres 
in  his  mind. 

Perhaps  Froebel's  strongest  reason  for  making  Na- 
ture take  a  prominent  place  in  the  study  of  childhood  is 
its  direct  influence  on  ethical  culture.  As  has  been 
stated  in  Chapter  VII,  he  saw  in  Nature  the  best  means 
for  revealing  life,  the  evolution  of  life,  and  the  source 
of  life  to  the  child.  He  values  history  and  literature,  if 
properly  taught,  as  aids  in  the  development  of  the  moral 
nature,  but  he  looked  to  sympathetic  study  of  Nature  to 
form  a  large  part  of  the  true  foundation  of  character. 
Without  a  foundation  there  can  be  no  development. 

Unfortunately,  Froebel  was  not  able  to  organize  his 
system  above  the  kindergarten,  so  that  his  processes  of 
correlation  after  the  kindergarten  period  are  given  to  us 
only  in  general  theoretic  statements.  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  he  would  make  Nature  study,  as  Mr.  Bowen 
beautifully  expresses  the  thought,  "  take  its  place  as  the 


CORRELATION  OF  STUDIES. 


209 


i^ 


connec- 
writes, 
!  knowl- 
mts  are 
rder  of 
>f  both; 
ow  and 
•  of  hill 
an,  and 
e  ocean 
Inci- 
[tended 
ilh  the 
aphical 
centres 

ig  Na- 
lood  is 
3  been 
means 
source 
lire,  if 
moral 
ure  to 
racter. 
nt. 

ze  his 
;ses  of 
id  us 
how- 
Jowen 
as  the 


leading  object,  till  in  the  school  proper  it  becomes  that 
which  reconciles  everything  and  unites  the  growing  cur- 
riculum into  one  organic  whole." 

Yet  it  is  restrictive  to  Froebel's  view  of  connected- 
ness to  say  that  he  made  any  one  subject  the  centre  to 
which  or  through  which  the  others  should  be  correlated. 
He  did  not  absolutely  limit  the  mediation  to  one  subject 
or  department  of  study.  In  some  respects  he  made 
mathematics  a  unifying  subject.  He  says,  "  Mathematics 
mediates,  unites,  generates  knowledge."  The  mathe- 
matical conceptions  of  number,  quantity,  form,  and  space 
are  essentially  connected  with  Nature,  and  help  man  to 
grasp  Nature  in  a  progressively  definite  and  more  com- 
prehensively related  way.  Chemistry,  geology,  crystal- 
lography, physics,  and  all  departments  of  Nature  study 
relating  to  inorganic  matter  and  the  forces  of  Nature 
are  intimately  related  to  mathematical  study,  so  that 
in  a  sense  Froebel  was  right  in  regarding  mathematics 
as  a  mediating  or  relating  study. 

He  saw,  too,  that  language  should  be  connected  with 
all  other  studies,  but  he  considered  language  as  the  re- 
sult, not  as  the  origin  of  thought,  and  so  did  not  regard 
it  as  a  correlating  element  in  a  course  of  study. 

In  the  last  analysis,  however,  Froebel  made  the  indi- 
vidual child  the  correlating  centre.  The  child  attends 
to  what  interests  it.  It  learns  rapidly  and  easily  the  facts 
and  principles  vitally  related  to  its  interests.  Nature  is 
the  child's  universal  sphere  of  deepest  interest,  and 
through  Nature  or  in  connection  with  Nature  there  is 
ample  scope  for  the  interrelated,  incidental  development 
of  all  the  powers  of  the  human  mind.  But  the  selfhood 
of  the  child  is,  after  all,  the  active,  mediating  influence. 


u> 


210 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


if:^! 


It  should  be  the  original  basis  and  source  of  the  interest, 
and,  as  its  evolution  becomes  more  and  more  complete^ 
it  will,  if  not  dwarfed,  yearn  for  new  departments  of 
knowledge  or  expression  or  power.  Froebel  experi- 
enced this  in  his  own  education.  Speaking  of  his  eft'orts 
to  study  German  literature,  he  says:  "  In  this,  too,  it  was 
with  me  as  in  so  many  other  things — any  influence  that 
came  before  me  I  had  either  to  fully  interweave  with 
my  inner  life  or  else  altogether  to  forego  its  acquisi- 
tion." 

The  child  is  the  true  psychological  centre  for  unity 
in  the  course  of  study.  When  teachers  have  fully  grasped 
this  truth  the  studies  will  be  presented  to  the  child  as  it 
seeks  for  them  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  its  develop- 
ing nature.  True  self-activity  will  make  it  possible  for 
the  child  to  do  this.  In  the  past,  and  too  often  in  the 
present,  the  teacher  has  not  paid  the  slightest  attention 
to  the  present  needs  of  the  child  as  revealed  by  its  own 
manifestations  of  interest.  Its  assumed  capacities,  and 
not  its  real  interests,  have  guided  the  teacher  in  deciding 
what  it  should  study.  Its  individuality  and  its  nascent 
periods,  when  its  interests  naturally  centre  about  special 
subjects  or  forms  of  activity,  have  been  ignored.  Child 
study  will  in  the  end  lead  to  the  recognition  of  the  sacred 
rights  of  the  child  in  these  matters.  Unfortunately,  the 
child  is  yet  too  often  studied  to  find  what  the  teacher 
can  do  to  educate  it.  Froebel  studied  the  child  to  learn 
how  the  teacher  can  aid  the  child  to  educate  itself. 
FroebeFs  ideal  must  prevail.  The  teacher  must  become 
"  more  passive  and  following,"  less  dogmatic  and  ener- 
getically directing. 

When  the  child  is  permitted  to  be  self-active  in  its 


inn ' 

.'.1 1 


CORRELATION  OF  STUDIES. 


211 


nterest, 
•mpletG;, 
lents  of 
cxpori- 
3  efforts 
),  it  was 
ice  that 
ve  with 
(icquisi- 

r  unity 
grasped 
Id  as  it 
evelop- 
ible  for 
in  the 
tention 
its  own 
es,  and 
eciding 
lascent 
special 
Child 
sacred 
;ly,  the 
:eacher 

0  leam 
itself. 

)ecome 

1  ener- 


own  development,  its  unfolding  interests  will  be  the  tru- 
est guide  in  the  correlation  of  studies. 

Whether  we  believe,  as  nearly  every  one  does,  in  sim- 
ple correlation,  or  interrelation  between  studies,  or  in  the 
co-ordination  of  unified  groups,  or  in  the  concentra- 
tion of  all  studies  around  one  centre,  we  may  find  the 
origin  of  our  thought  in  FroebeFs  writings.  He  may 
perhaps  be  best  described  as  a  concentro-correlationist. 

He  magnified  the  child  as  the  basis  of  inner  connec- 
tion much  more  than  Herbart.  He  insisted  on  the  evo- 
lutionary stages  of  human  growth  as  a  fundamental  and 
dominant  element  in  all  true  education,  and  demanded 
such  consideration  for  the  needs  of  the  child  as  would 
secure  perfect  adaptation  of  its  studies  to  its  stage  of  de- 
velopment. In  this  the  best  modern  exponents  of  Her- 
bart agree  more  fully  with  Froebel  than  did  Herbart 
himself.  Ziller  and  Rein  are  agreed  that  "  the  growing 
personality  of  the  pupil  is  the  centre  to  which  nil  the 
multiplicity  of  interests  and  new  ideas  must  be  related." 

This  was  Froebel's  central  thought  in  regard  to  con- 
nectedness in  school  work. 


U 


■■> . 


in  its 


15 


ji 


^!in 


I '; 


^ 


-.'(' 


m. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


APPERCEPTION. 


One  of  the  defects  that  Froehel  noted  in  the  work  of 
Pestalozzi  was  that  he  was  satisfied  with  cultivating  the 
power  of  sense  perception  without  giving  consideration 
to  the  unification  of  the  resulting  perceptions  in  the 
mind.  Froehel  aimed  to  secure  the  "  inner  connection  " 
between  the  knowledge  or  experience  of  the  child  and 
the  new  knowledge  that  was  brought  to  it  by  the  senses, 
for  he  knew  that  without  true  relatedness,  which  results 
in  a  unity  between  the  old  inner  and  the  newly  revealed 
outer,  there  can  be  no  real  advance  in  knowledge  or  con- 
sequent increase  in  power.    One  of  his  mottoes  was: 

Always^  whatever  with  a  child  you  do, 
Remain  in  touch  with  its  own  life  all  through. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  other  educator  ever  saw 
the  meaning  of  apperception  and  its  importance  in  edu- 
cation as  clearly  as  Froehel  did.  It  is  certain  that  no 
other  educator  discovered  a  law  of  method  which  neces- 
sarily secures  such  active  apperception  as  Froebel's  law 
of  self-activity.  That  he  has  not  received  full  credit 
for  his  advanced  ideas  in  relation  to  correlation,  interest, 
and  apperception,  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  he  is 

213 


APPERCEPTION. 


213 


known  to  most  teachers  only  as  the  founder  of  the  kin- 
dergarten. He  never  could  have  founded  a  kindergarten 
if  he  had  not  had  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  education.  His  great  purpose  in 
founding  the  kindergarten  was  to  fill  the  child's  life  with 
the  germs  of  true  feeling  and  thought  as  a  basis  for  its 
best  and  fullest  development  in  later  years.  He  saw  very 
clearly  that  without  these  germs  in  the  child's  mind, 
as  apperceptive  centres,  the  proper  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual culture  of  man  is  impossible.  He  claimed  that 
"  every  subject  of  future  instruction  and  discipline 
should  germinate  in  childhood,"  and  he  aimed  in  the 
kindergarten  to  provide  a  comprehensive  and  scientific 
system  by  which  mothers  and  kindergartners  could  defi- 
nitely aid  this  most  essential  germination  by  guiding  the 
pupil's  own  free  self-activity.  He  did  not  write  books 
about  apperception,  but  he  is  the  only  educator  who 
recognised  its  importance  so  clearly  as  to  found  an  elab- 
orate and  well-organized  system  of  education  to  prepare 
all  cl -Idren  for  perfect  apperceiving.  He  not  only 
founded  a  new  system  of  education,  but  he  adapted  it  to 
a  stage  of  the  child's  evolution  hitherto  untouched  by 
educators.  It  is  during  the  period  before  the  child  goes 
to  the  regular  school  that  its  mind  should  be  stored  with 
the  germs  that  give  vitality  and  productiveness  to  feel- 
ing and  thought.  The  thought  content  of  a  child's  mind 
on  entering  school  has  a  most  important  influence  on  its 
educational  development,  but  its  influence  is  not  com- 
parable to  that  of  the  symbolic  outlines  of  feeling  and 
thought  that  should  lie  in  its  mind  as  formative  elements 
which  will  spring  to  vigorous  life  at  the  touch  of  kindred 
feeling  and  knowledge  during  the  period  of  its  con- 


J,  Ji 


:-^ 


I  V.'i 


214 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


scious  education.  The  recognition  of  this  great  truth, 
and  the  equally  important  fact  that  the  implanting  of 
the  symbolic  germs  of  feeling  and  thought  must  be  done 
during  the  earlier  evolutionary  stage  of  the  child's  life, 
and  the  careful  working  out  of  a  definite  system  of  edu- 
cation adapted  to  the  unconscious,  symbolic  period  of 
the  child's  development,  which  fills  its  mind  with  centres 
of  intellectual  and  spiritual  growth  without  making  it 
conscious,  make  Froebel  the  greatest  exponent  of  apper- 
ception. He  revealed  it  in  his  work  more  than  in  his 
words.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  explains  a  great  principle 
in  words;  blessed  a  thousand  times  is  he  who  reveals  a 
great  principle  as  an  organized  force.  Without  the  kin- 
dergarten to  prepare  for  apperception  in  school,  the 
teacher's  knowledge  of  the  need  of  apperception  would 
be  of  little  avail.  The  mind  must  be  stored  with  what 
Wordsworth  in  his  ode  describes  as^ 

.  .  .  Those  first  affections, 
Those  shadowy  recollections, 

Which  be  they  what  they  may, 
Are  yet  the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day, 
Are  yet  a  master  light  of  all  our  seeing. 

Froebel  gradually  advanced  logically  to  the  great 
step  of  his  life — the  founding  of  the  kindergarten.  He 
first  saw  that  sense  perception  meant  nothing  to  a  child 
in  school  unless  there  was  some  germ  in  its  mind  to  which 
the  new  perception  could  in  some  way  be  related.  His 
law  of  evolution  led  him  to  see  that  the  time  for  filling 
the  child's  life  with  formative  types  of  feeling  and 
thought  is  during  the  years  before  it  goes  to  school.  His 
law  of  self-activity  taught  him  that  the  child  during 
this  period  must  be  left  free,  so  that  its  interest  may 


t,i 


I 


APPERCEPTION. 


215 


increase  and  its  selfhood  develop.  His  judgment  showed 
him  that  woman's  perfect  sympathy  with  childhood  made 
her  the  natural  educator  of  little  children.  And  so,  after 
years  of  thought  and  study  and  careful  planning,  he 
founded  a  system  of  education  in  harmony  with  all 
these  principles,  and  named  it  the  kindergarten.  It  is 
adapted  to  the  complete  evolution  of  the  child,  when  the 
earliest  efforts  should  be  made  to  systematize  its  activi- 
ties; in  it  the  child's  individuality  is  respected,  and 
woman  is  its  friend  and  guide;  and  by  its  processes  with 
gifts,  occupations,  songs,  stories,  Nature  investigation 
and  Nature  nurture,  the  child's  mind  is  filled  with  the 
rootlets  of  feeling,  thought,  knowledge,  and  skill,  which 
form  apperceptive  centres  for  a  perfect  development  of 
feeling,  thought,  knowledge,  and  skill  in  school,  college, 
university,  and  life-work.  In  writing  about  the  kinder- 
garten seven  years  after  the  first  was  opened,  he  said: 
"  You  see  with  what  a  foundation,  a  basis,  with  what  a 
sum  of  living  germs  in  the  life  material  which  he  has 
gathered,  the  child  passes  from  the  kindergarten  to  the 
intermediate  school.  .  .  .  All  this  awaits  only  develop- 
ment from  unconsciousness  through  growing  conscious- 
ness to  consciousness  itself,  and  this  now  is  the  task  of 
the  primary  school." 

Although  he  wrote  no  specific  treatise  under  the 
name  "Apperception,"  his  definite  recognition  of  the 
principle  is  found  all  through  his  writings,  as  well  as  in 
his  organized  system. 

"  Even  the  lucid  word  of  the  most  lucid  teacher  fre- 
quently has  no  influence  upon  our  sons,  for  they  are 
asked  to  learn  now  what  they  should  have  learned  in 
childhood  with  the  help  of  our  quickening  explanations; 


li 


'  ( 


\A 


I     u 


:1 


'■I 


y  -f 


216 


FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


what,  indeed,  childhood  meant  they  should  learn  almost 
without  effort." 

"  We  do  not  feel  the  meaning  of  what  we  say,  for 
our  speech  is  made  up  of  memorized  ideas,  based  neither 
on  perception  nor  on  productive  effort.  Therefore  it 
does  not  lead  to  perception,  production,  life;  it  has  not 
proceeded,  it  does  not  proceed,  from  life." 

"  We  hear  the  sound,  it  is  true,  but  we  fail  to  get  the 
image;  we  hear  the  noise,  but  see  no  movement." 

"  The  school  should  give  a  conscious  communication 
of  knowledge,  for  a  definite  purpose  and  in  definite  inner 
connection.''* 

"It  is  imperative  that  parents  and  teachers  should 
be  careful  to  render  the  inner  life  of  their  children  as 
rich  as  possible." 

"  Of  course  words  must  find  a  response  in  the  boy's 
life.  The  child  must  not  be  expected  to  give  life  and 
meaning  to  the  words,  but  the  words  must  give  expres- 
sion to  what  is  already  in  the  boy's  soul  and  find  their 
meaning  in  this." 

"We  should  not  forget,  however,  that  instruction 
should  start  from  the  pupil's  own  life  and  proceed  from 
it  like  a  bud  or  sprout." 

"  Man  understands  other  things,  the  life  of  others, 
and  the  effects  of  other  powers,  only  in  so  far  as  he  under- 
stands himself,  his  own  power,  and  his  own  life." 

"  No  new  subject  of  instruction  should  be  brought  to 
the  pupil  unless  he  at  least  feels  vaguely  that  it  is  hased, 
and  how  it  is  hased,  on  previous  work." 

"  That  which  follows  is  always  conditioned  upon  that 
which  goes  before.  I  make  that  apparent  to  the  children 
through  my  educational  process." 


APPERCEPTION. 


217 


ilmost 


"  The  knowledge  before  all  things  necessary  for  the 
welfare  of  future  generations  is  that  the  human  mind 
is  choked  in  the  germ  by  the  burdensome  crowd  of  no- 
tions heaped  up  and  patched  on  foreign  to  it,  rooted  in 
nothing  within." 

*'  The  child  must  first  be  something  before  he  can 
turn  to  the  contemplation  of  strange  things  not  wholly 
akin  to  his  nature." 

Froebel's  plan  for  making  the  outer  inner  was  by 
making  the  inner  outer.  In  other  words,  he  taught  that 
the  inner  should  be  active  in  its  use  of  the  outer,  in 
order  to  make  the  inner  greater  by  the  perfect  assimila- 
tion of  the  new  outer.  Therefore  his  universal  process 
of  self-activity  solved  for  him  the  problem  of  appercep- 
tion. Having  stored  the  mind  with  the  varied  and  active 
formative  elements  of  feeling,  thought,  knowledge,  and 
skill  in  the  first  stage  of  the  child's  training,  it  was  ready 
to  proceed  with  the  culture  of  these  elements  in  school. 

But  he  realized  that  it  was  quite  possible  to  have  in 
the  mind  the  germ  centre  of  knowledge  corresponding 
to  the  new  knowledge  to  be  communicated,  and  to  have 
the  perceptive  powers  well  trained  without  securing  an 
increase  in  the  amount  of  knowledge  already  gained. 
Knowledge  must  be  related  to  other  knowledge  already 
in  the  mind  if  it  is  to  be  retained  as  a  vital  addition  to 
our  present  store.  Therefore  it  is  essential  not  only  that 
there  shall  be  knowledge  in  the  mind  to  which  the  new 
information  may  be  related,  but  this  knowledge  in  the 
mind  must  be  aroused  so  that  it  is  ready  to  apperceive 
the  new  information.,  The  more  active  the  knowledge 
already  in  the  mind  becomes,  the  more  complete  the 
fusion  of  the  old  and  the  new  will  be.    Their  perfect 


' ) 


i 


tmaaaaai 


■  ■'^i 


If 


4 


t   tf 


'"i 


'^ 


i:  il: 


!   1^ 


I  ! 


ll 


218 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


assimilation  should  be  the  teacher's  aim.  In  true  self- 
activity  the  inner  centre  already  developed  must  be 
actively  alert,  because,  led  by  interest,  it  becomes  the 
originating  power  to  arouse  the  activity.  Self-activity 
requires  positive,  vital  interest  as  a  motive,  and  a  much 
more  aggressive  attitude  of  the  inner  to  the  outer,  the 
old  to  the  new,  than  any  form  of  responsive  activity. 
By  making  self-activity  an  organic  part  of  his  educa- 
tional work,  therefore,  Froebel  made  it  imperative  that 
the  mind  of  the  learner  should  be  in  the  most  favour- 
able condition,  and  the  process  of  learning  should  be 
the  most  thorough  for  securing  perfect  apperception. 
The  spontaneous  interest  of  a  self -active  child  in  the 
subject  under  consideration  necessarily  arouses  the  cor- 
responding elements  in  the  mind,  and  prepares  them  for 
perfect  fusion  with  the  new  related  elements. 

Self-activity  alone  forms  a  sound  basis  for  complete 
apperception,  because  it  alone  demands  such  vitality 
of  interest  in  the  mind  of  the  learner  as  will  lead  to  posi- 
tive and  voluntary  action  to  gain  the  new  information 
or  solve  the  new  problem.  Increase  of  knowledge  under 
such  conditions  does  not  result  from  aggregation,  but 
from  thorough  assimilation,  and  the  resultant  unity  is 
characterized  by  energetic  vitality  and  by  an  aggressive 
alertness  in  regard  to  the  still  unconquered  and  unassimi- 
lated  outer  knowledge.  This  not  only  keeps  interest  in 
the  outer  alive,  but  makes  it  increasingly  vigorous  as  a 
propelling  inner  force.  True  interest  is  not  merely  will- 
ing to  receive  knowledge;  it  urges  on  to  the  earnest 
effort  to  acquire  it.  If  the  outer  and  the  inner  are  to 
become  one,  if  the  subjects  and  methods  of  the  schools 
are  to  aim  to  modify  what  is  within  the  child,  it  requires 


APPERCEPTION. 


219 


little  argument  to  prove  that  the  chief  agent  in  makin 
the  transformation  should  be  the  inner  itself.  It  alone 
can  be  a  sure  guide  in  determining  what  phase  of  the 
outer  corresponds  with  the  present  development  and  at- 
titude of  the  inner.  Questioning  may  aid  the  teacher 
in  forming  an  estimate  of  the  kind  of  external  knowl- 
edge best  adapted  to  the  child's  stage  of  development  and 
of  mind-storing;  but  at  best  such  an  estimate  is  only 
an  approximation.  There  is  but  one  unerring  guide, 
and  that  is  unwarped  and  undwarfed  interest,  unchecked 
in  its  stimulation  of  self-activity.  Teaching  that  is  not 
directly  related  to  the  child's  inner  life,  adapted  to  its 
stage  of  evolution  and  its  culture  epochs,  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  demands  of  its  immediate  interests,  is  of 
little  value,  and  may  do  much  harm.  The  true  growth 
of  the  mind  is  effected  by  its  being  allowed  to  assimilate 
the  kind  of  knowledge  it  needs,  the  kind  adapted  to  its 
present  needs.  Self-activity  seeks  the  right  kind  of 
knowledge  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  interest,  which  is 
the  concentration  of  the  present  needs  of  the  child 
clamouring  for  satisfaction,  and  it  immediately  assimi- 
lates the  new  knowledge  into  its  selfhood  and  trans- 
forms it  into  character.  Mr.  Bowen  says  in  this  connec- 
tion :  "  Nothing  which  does  not  spring  directly  from 
the  natural  primary  outfit  of  the  child — which  is  not  a 
natural  outcome  of  it — should  be  imported  into  the  child 
in  the  first  stage,  nor  indeed  in  any  stage  to  which  it 
does  not  naturally  and  rightfully  belong." 

A  great  deal  of  the  information  given  in  school  never 
truly  becomes  knowledge.  It  becomes  knowledge  really 
only  when  it  is  understood  in  itself  and  its  inner  con- 
nection so  thoroughly  that  it  can  be  used,  and  has  been 


III 


'I' ' 


il^ 


220 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


*'•; 


used.  This  is  the  only  complete  apperception,  and  Froe- 
bel's  law  of  self-activity  is  the  only  educational  process 
that  requires  the  fulfilment  of  these  conditions  by  the 
pupil  in  learning. 

A  mind  trained  in  harmony  with  FroebeFs  concep- 
tion of  apperception  grows  to  be  an  organic  unity.  All 
knowledge  to  such  a  mind  has  such  varied  relations  that 
it  stimulates  the  growth  of  the  complete  mind.  The 
more  widely  inner  connection  is  established  in  the  mind 
between  the  facts  assimilated,  the  more  interesting  and 
the  more  comprehensively  stimulative  to  productive  ef- 
fort they  become. 

Froebel  applied  the  principle  of  apperception  very 
broadly  and  definitely  in  regard  to  the  training  of  the 
moral  and  religious  nature.  "  If  it  were  possible,"  he 
says,  "  that  a  human  being  could  be  without  religion,  it 
would  also  be  impossible  to  give  him  religion."  "  Reli- 
gious instruction  can  bear  fruit,  can  affect  and  influence 
life,  only  in  so  far  as  it  finds  in  the  mind  of  man  true 
religion,  however  indefinite  and  vague."  The  forma- 
tive elements  must  be  in  the  nature  of  the  child.  If  the 
apperceptive  moral  and  religious  centres  are  not  there, 
the  ears  are  necessarily  deaf  and  the  eyes  blind. 

One  of  the  greatest  problems  teachers  have  to  solve 
is  how  to  fill  the  minds  of  children  before  they  go  to 
school  with  a  rich  store  of  germs  of  feeling,  thought, 
knowledge,  and  skill,  to  which  the  culture  of  the  schools 
may  be  definitely  related.  This  problem  grows  more 
important  as  the  population  of  the  world  gathers  into 
cities,  and  childhood  is  cut  off  from  the  information,  the 
inspiration,  the  symbolic  intellectual  and  spiritual 
foundations,  and  opportunities  for  constructive  opera- 


nd  Froe- 
1  process 
s  by  the 

concep- 
ity.  All 
ions  that 
id.  The 
;he  mind 
ting  and 
ctive  ef- 

ion  very 
g  of  the 
ble,"  he 
ligion,  it 
"  Reli- 
nfluence 
aan  true 
;  forma- 
.  If  the 
[>t  there, 

to  solve 
3y  go  to 
thought, 
3  schools 
ivs  more 
lers  into 
tion,  the 
spiritual 
e  opera- 


APPERCBPTION. 


221 


tions  afforded  by  life  in  the  country  in  touch  with  natu- 
ral and  objective  life.  The  inner  life  must  be  enriched 
and  made  creative  early  if  the  work  of  the  school  is  to  be 
effective.  There  must  be  a  broader  real  basis  for  the 
abstract.  There  should  be  no  "  extraneously  communi- 
cated knowledge  heaped  up  in  the  memory."  Froebel 
saw  the  imperative  need  of  this  enrichment  of  childhood, 
and  he  founded  the  kindergarten  to  provide  for  it,  in 
harmony  with  psychological  principles.  He  aimed  to 
fill  the  minds  of  all  children  with  so  many  intercon- 
nected apperceptive  centres  that  the  infinite  variety  of 
the  external  might  find  in  the  inner  lives  the  conditions 
of  recognition  and  assimilation.  He  dreaded  "cram- 
ming and  ingrafting,"  because  "God  neither  ingrafts 
nor  inoculates." 


■v»j.   I  ' 


■  I-  '• 


51        ■ 


'  i  H 

J 

I 

.  )  ! 
.  ( 


im 

m 


•i 

s 


t/ 


-m- 


(i;!J 


)  ,1 


!■ 


CHAPTER  X. 


INDIVIDXTALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION. 


■1^ 


ll'.. 


t.    .!  f 


i:     ■ 


m^i 


t 


Individuality  or  selfhood  has  necessarily  received 
some  attention  in  Chapters  IV  and  VI,  but  its  impor- 
tance as  the  logical  basis  of  self-expression  demands  that 
it  be  still  further  considered.  Froebel  made  the  com- 
plete development  of  the  social  unit  the  foundation  for 
the  progressive  advance  of  organized  society,  and  was 
the  first  educator  to  make  this  phase  of  the  power  and 
the  importance  of  individuality  clear. 

The  individuality  of  the  child  is  the  divinity  in  it, 
the  element  whose  development  should  do  most  for  the 
child  and  the  world.  The  highest  duty  of  the  school 
is  to  develop  the  conscious  personality  of  the  child.  Real 
personality  must  be  an  element  of  strength.  It  should 
be  the  centre  of  a  man's  character.  It  should  be  his  con- 
tribution to  the  general  character  of  the  race.  Millions 
fail  in  life  because  they  are  never  clearly  conscious  of 
their  own  personal  power.  Every  individual  failure 
retards  the  race.  This  is  the  true  basis  for  the  value  of 
individuality.  The  revelation  of  the  strength  of  self- 
hood as  an  element  in  the  general  strength  of  humanity 
leads  to  true  self-reverence  and  self-faith.  A  man  who 
has  self-reverence  and  self-faith  rarely  fails.    He  uses 

-     222 


r:;! 


;  !.   ;: 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      223 


received 
s  impor- 
nds  that 
ihe  com- 
ition  for 
and  was 
iwer  and 

ty  in  it, 
t  for  the 
e  school 
Id.  Real 
t  should 

his  con- 
Millions 
cious  of 

failure 
value  of 

of  self- 
umanity 
lan  who 
He  uses 


the  intellectual  power  he  possesses.  A  man  with  mod- 
erate intellectual  powers  and  well-developed  self-faith 
usually  accomplishes  more  for  himself  and  humanity 
than  the  man  who  has  great  intellectual  power  but  little 
self-faith.  It  is  not  possible  to  give  all  children  great 
intellectual  power,  but  it  is  possible  for  the  school  to 
make  each  child  as  it  grows  to  maturity  conscious  of  its 
own  highest  power,  and  to  give  it  faith  in  itself  because 
of  its  consciousness  of  that  power. 

True  self-reverence  and  self-faith  are  the  opposites 
to  vanity  and  conceit.  Self -reverence  and  self -faith  are 
strengthening  and  ennobling.  They  are  the  elements  in 
character  that  lead  men  to  do  and  dare  and  struggle 
hopefully.  He  who  is  sure  he  can  not  succeed  has  al- 
ready failed.  He  who  has  a  reverent  consciousness  of 
power  in  his  own  personality,  and  has  gained  the  faith 
that  springs  from  this  consciousness,  succeeds  always. 
He  does  not  wait  for  opportunities,  he  creates  them; 
he  is  not  forced  to  act  by  circumstances,  but  moulds  cir- 
cumstances and  conditions. 

So  long  as  a  child  or  man  lacks  respect  for  the  prod- 
uct of  his  own  best  eflFort,  his  power  does  not  increase 
rapidly  even  by  use.  Self-deprecation  may  neutralize  the 
beneficent  influence  of  activity  or  exercise  of  function. 
Faith  in  one's  own  power  strong  enough  to  lead  to  its 
use,  and  respect  for  the  product  of  effort  honestly  made, 
give  every  conscious  effort  a  widening  and  strengthen- 
ing influence  on  character.  Therefore  the  development 
of  individuality  should  be  one  of  the  main  purposes  of 
every  teacher. 

The  schools  have  definitely  aimed  to  make  the  chil- 
dren as  much  alike  as  possible.    They  should  really  be 


]!' 


'1'. 


h 


V  -t 


224 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


made  as  unlike  as  possible,  so  far  as  the  freeing  of  their 
individuality  from  constraint  tends  to  make  them  unlike. 
All  true  harmony  results  from  the  unity  of  dissimilarity. 
No  two  trees  or  flowers  are  exactly  alike.  It  would  be  a 
pity  to  have  them  so.  The  higher  the  organization  the 
greater  the  capacity  for  variation.  Men  should  see  truth 
from  different  standpoints,  and  transform  insight  into 
attainment  with  widely  varied  powers.  Each  new  vi* 
of  truth,  when  revealed  by  an  undwarfed  individuality 
gives  new  form  or  tone  to  revealed  truth.  The  schools 
have  made  mixed  characters,  part  child  and  part  teacher. 
They  have  developed  self -consciousness  which  is  para- 
lyzing, instead  of  selfhood  which  is  strengthening  and 
invigorating.  Very  few  children  are  allowed  to  be  their 
real  selves,  and  "  live  their  souls  straight  out."  Men 
have  dreaded  the  depravity  of  the  child  so  much  that  its 
divinity  has  not  been  allowed  to  grow.  In  attempting 
to  restrict  depravity  the  light  of  the  divinity  in  the  chile' 
has  been  shadowed,  and  lives  of  gloom  and  stagnati( 
have  resulted  instead  of  lives  of  brightness  and  advance- 
ment. 

Each  child  should  feel,  when  it  leaves  school  or  col- 
lege, that  it  has  some  special  power  that  must  be  used 
if  the  progress  of  the  world  is  to  be  as  rapid  and  as  com- 
plete as  It  should  be. 

Froebel's  lofty  ideals  of  individuality  may  be  gained 
from  a  few  extracts  from  his  writings: 

"  It  is  the  destiny  and  life-work  of  all  things  to  un- 
fold their  essence.  ...  It  is  the  special  destiny  and 
life-work  of  man,  as  an  intelligent  and  rational  being, 
to  hecome  fully,  vividli/f  and  clearly  conscious  of  his  es- 
sencCf  of  the  Divine  effluence  in  him,  and  therefore  of 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      225 


?  of  their 
m  unlike, 
imilarity. 
ould  be  ji 
ation  the 
see  truth 
ight  into 
new  vi' 
iridualii 
e  schools 
:  teacher, 
is  para- 
ling  and 
be  their 
."     Men 
I  that  its 
empting 
he  chile' 
ignati( 
idvanee- 

l  or  col- 
be  used 
as  corn- 
gained 

to  un- 
ly  and 

being, 
his  es- 
fore  of 


God;  to  become  fully,  vividly,  and  clearly  conscious  of 
his  destiny  and  life-work;  and  to  accomplish  this,  to  ren- 
der it  (his  essence)  active,  to  reveal  it  in  his  own  life  with 
self-determination  and  freedom/' 

"  The  Spirit  of  God  and  of  humanity  is  revealed  most 
purely  and  perfectly  by  man  if  he  unfolds  and  represents 
his  own  being  as  much  as  possible  in  accordance  with  his 
individuality  and  personality." 

"  The  child  should  neither  be  partly  chained,  fet- 
tered, nor  swathed,  nor,  later  on,  spoiled  by  too  much  as- 
sistance." 

"  Every  human  being  has,  indeed,  hut  one  thought  pe- 
culiarly and  predominantly  his  own,  the  fundamental 
thought,  as  it  were,  of  his  whole  being,  the  keynote  of  his 
life-symphony,  a  thought  which  he  simply  seeks  to  ex- 
press and  render  clear  with  the  help  of  a  thousand  other 
thoughts,  with  the  help  of  all  he  does." 

"  Only  in  all-sided,  natural,  and  rational  develop- 
ment of  himself  and  his  spiritual  power  man  finds  his 
welfare  and  the  welfare  of  mankind,  and  every  other 
course  hinders  the  true  develo[)ment  of  mankind." 

"We  do  great  violence  to  boy  nature  when  we  re- 
press and  supplant  these  normal,  many-sided  mental 
tendencies  in  the  growing  human  being;  when,  in  the 
belief  of  doing  a  service  to  God  and  man,  and  of  pro- 
moting the  future  earthly  prosperity,  inner  peace,  and 
heavenly  salvation  of  the  boy,  we  cut  off  one  or  the  other 
of  these  tendencies  and  graft  others  in  their  places." 

"  An  education  which  does  not  try  to  raise  roses  from 
thistle  bushes  will  wisely  use  all  talents  and  dispositions, 
and  bring  each  man  into  his  proper  place,  out  of  which 
he  will  not  desire  to  go." 


'jii  ]',' 


rn 


)*'  : 


;l  i 


;l 


'.•■P:<i 


-^••■fil. 


)SV 


m 

111 


226 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


"I  will  protect  childhood  that  it  may  not,  as  in 
earlier  generations,  be  pinioned  as  in  a  strait-jacket, 
in  garments  of  custom  and  ancient  prescription,  that 
have  become  too  narrow  for  the  new  time.  I  shall  show 
the  way,  and  I  hope  the  means,  that  every  human  soul 
may  grow  of  itself  out  of  its  own  individuality." 

His  great  aim  was  "  to  allow  a  tree  of  life  to  ger- 
minate in  each  one's  own  heart,  and  a  tree  of  knowledge 
in  each  one's  own  mind,  taking  care  for  its  beautiful  un- 
folding, that  it  may  bring  forth  fresh  and  healthy  flowers 
and  ripe  fruits." 

He  was  anxious  for  individual  development  as  the 
source  of  race  development.  "  All  progress,  all  culture," 
he  said,  "  is  the  result  of  the  original  creativeness  of  the 
minds  of  every  age,  which  have  been  able  to  increase 
the  sum  of  existing  intellectual  and  material  wealth  by 
producing  sometiiir»g  new.  The  imitators  in  a  genera- 
tion who  allow  themselves  to  be  satisfied  with  what  they 
have  found  at  hand,  and  live  and  do  only  as  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  do,  can  never  bring  about  such 
an  enrichment  of  civilization." 

He  never  aimed  to  develop  individuality  for  the  sake 
of  the  individual  alone,  but  aimed  to  qualify  each  man 
to  fill  the  special  place  he  was  intended  to  occupy  in  the 
organic  whole  of  humanity.  He  saw  the  perfect  indi- 
vidual as  more  than  an  isolated  unit.  "  In  every  human 
being,  as  a  member  of  humanity  and  as  a  child  of  God, 
there  lies  and  lives  humanity  as  a  whole;  but  in  each 
one  it  is  realized  in  a  wholly  particular,  peculiar,  per- 
sonal, unique  manner."  This  broad  view  of  the  perfect 
individual  cleared  his  vision  in  regard  to  individualism 
and  socialism,  and  gave  him  a  logical  basis  for  his  theory 


INDIVIBUALITt  AND  SELP-EXPRESSION.      227 


;,  as  in 
-jacket, 
n,  that 
ill  show 
an  soul 


to  ger- 

jwledge 

iful  un- 

flowers 

;  as  the 
ulture," 
s  of  the 
increase 
jalth  by 
genera- 
lat  they 
as  they 
(ut  such 

;he  sake 
ch  man 
y  in  the 
ct  indi- 

human 
of  God, 
in  each 
ar,  per- 

perfect 
dualism 
3  theory 


of  evolution.  The  race-including  individual  forms  a 
perfect  combining  element  in  the  all-comprehending 
unity  of  the  race.  Gaining  strength  as  an  individual 
from  the  cumulative  development  of  the  race,  he  in  turn 
adds  strength  to  the  race.  As  the  coral  insect  raises  its 
rock  by  its  death,  the  truly  d  veloped  individual  raises 
humanity  by  his  life. 

Froebel  recognised  in  the  universal  desire  of  child- 
hood to  help  in  the  work  going  on  around  it  a  race  tend- 
ency to  work  in  co-operation  with  its  fellows;  and  he 
repeatedly  warned  parents  and  teachers  against  discour- 
aging, rebuffing,  or  checking  this  very  important  in- 
stinct. Creativeness  alone  is  a  great  power,  but  co-oper- 
ative creativeness  is  a  much  higher  ideal.  The  true  ideal 
in  human  education  is  creativeness  fostered  and  devel- 
oped by  self-activity  in  as  varied  departments  as  possible, 
and  with  the  general  aim  of  aiding  in  universal  upward 
progress.  With  such  an  education  in  home  and  school, 
it  could  never  be  said  of  children  as  it  can  too  commonly 
be  said  now:  "  When  this  child  was  small  and  could  not 
help,  it  busied  itself  about  everything;  now  that  it  knows 
something  and  is  strong  enough,  it  does  not  want  to  do 
anything."  It  is  a  serious  charge  against  our  systems  of 
child  training  that,  although  children  are  born  with  a 
desire  to  help,  they  have  lost  this  desire  by  the  time  they 
have  acquired  the  power  to  be  helpful. 

Teachers  should  therefore  aim  to  develop  the  child's 

individuality  while  bringing  it  into  contact  with  the 

great  stores  of  knowledge  in  Nature  and  in  books,  that 

it  may  become  conscious  of  the  divine  essence  in  its 

nature,  and  reveal  it  to  others.    Teachers  may  weaken 

the  child's  individuality  by  overshadowing  it  by  the 
16 


^ii! 


u 


■V  A     '     '* 


i|!^  I 


hJ 

I 


228 


FBOEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


domination  of  their  own  personality,  by  overdirecting  it, 
by  making  it  consciously  imitative,  by  giving  it  too  much 
assistance,  and,  more  than  in  any  other  way,  by  failing 
to  provide  sufficiently  varied  opportunities  for  the  exer- 
cise of  selfhood  in  complete  self-activity  in  the  acquisi- 
tion and  use  of  knowledge  adapted  to  its  stage  of  devel- 
opment. The  child's  self -determining  character  can  not 
develop  properly;  indeed,  its  development  is  scarcely 
possible,  if  the  teacher  is  the  determining  agent,  if  it  is 
trained  to  imitate  deliberately,  or  if  its  own  activity  is 
prevented  either  by  having  its  work  done  by  the  teacher, 
or  by  lack  of  appropriate  work  to  lead  it  to  interested 
self-activity. 

The  child's  individuality  is  usually  dwarfed  before  it 
comes  to  school.  Few  parents  recognise  their  child's  in- 
dividuality sufficiently  to  stand  reverently  aside  and  let 
it  spontaneously  climb  toward  the  light.  Froebel  said: 
"  Every  child  brings  with  him  into  the  world  the  natu- 
ral disposition  to  see  correctly  what  is  before  him,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  truth." 

The  most  unfortunate  children  are  those  whose  un- 
trained nurses  or  mothers  foolishly  do  for  them  what 
they  should  do  for  themselves,  and  point  out  to  them 
the  things  they  should  see  for  themselves.  The  child 
is  seriously  injured  by  such  treatment.  It  is  trained  to 
believe  that  its  function  in  the  world  is  to  demand  and 
receive  attention,  and  it  inevitably  becomes  imperious, 
weak,  and  selfish.  Its  own  power  to  see  new  things  is 
lessened  if  mother  or  nurse  leads  it  from  scene  to  scene, 
pointing  out  each  new  attraction.  "  See,  darling  I ''  may 
prevent  the  development  of  the  child's  power  to  see  in- 
dependently.   No  power  reaches  its  best  development  in 


t'ii    1 


INDIVIDUAUTY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      229 


If   '' 


m 


any  way  but  by  the  self-activity  of  the  power  itself.  The 
power  of  seeing  does  not  lie  in  the  eye  alone.  It  depends 
chiefly  on  the  mind.  Thousands  of  beautiful  pictures 
are  formed  on  the  eye  that  are  not  seen.  The  mind  sees 
only  those  pictures  which  it  selects  from  the  vast  number 
in  the  ever-changing  gallery  of  the  eye.  The  power  of 
selection  and  definite  examination  is  the  one  that  should 
be  trained.  It  acts  automatically  in  relation  to  those 
things  that  are  of  real  interest,  and  continues  to  increase 
in  quickness  and  definiteness  unless  it  is  dwarfed  by  the 
substitution  of  some  other  agency  to  do  its  work.  In 
such  a  condition  power  always  grows  less.  Training  in 
seeing  new  things  quickly  and  accurately  does  not 
modify  the  power,  or  condition,  or  even  the  activity  of 
the  eye  to  any  considerable  extent;  it  does  influence  the 
power  of  attention,  and  makes  the  mind  more  active  and 
more  investigative  along  the  lines  of  predominant  in- 
terest. 

The  mistake  of  most  parents  and  teachers  lies  in  as- 
suming that  they  should  not  only  present  the  attraction 
to  the  child's  mind,  but  also  arouse  and  direct  its  atten- 
tion. Whenever  this  is  done  by  any  agency  except  the 
child's  own  self-active  interest  its  power  of  attention  is 
weakened.  The  duty  of  the  guide  of  the  child  is  to  place 
it  in  conditions  of  interest  to  it,  and  allow  its  own  mind 
to  do  its  own  seeing.  The  child's  environment,  and  not 
the  teacher  or  parent,  should  stimulate  its  mental  ac- 
tivity. 

It  is  a  common  practice  to  arouse  children  from  rev- 
erie under  the  impression  that  they  are  mentally  in- 
active. This  is  a  grave  error.  In  this  way  mental  opera- 
tions of  great  importance  are  interrupted  and  sometimes 


i1? 


i)i 


i 


UH 


*'  < 


I- 

i 

I 

I 


^l 


fA4    ; 


^     r:'       i 


230 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


checked  for  ever.  Such  thoughtless  interference  may 
close  windows  of  the  soul  that  may  never  be  reopened, 
and  break  silver  threads  that  may  never  be  reunited. 
Whether  the  child  appears  to  be  interested  in  its  environ- 
ment or  not  it  arrests  the  development  of  its  own  self- 
active  interest  to  direct  its  attention  to  the  thing  which 
is  interesting  to  the  adult  friend  who  accompanies  it. 
When  the  child  is  doing  wTong  its  interest  centre  should 
be  changed,  but  the  child  should  not  be  conscious  of  the 
interference  of  the  guide  who  leads  to  the  change.  De- 
manding a  change  of  interest  is  a  gross  wrong,  suggest- 
ing a  change  because  parent  or  teacher  has  found  some- 
thing attractive  to  himself  is  unwise;  but  leading  to  a 
new  interest  because  experience  has  proved  it  to  be 
adapted  to  child  development  is  highly  commendable. 

The  greatest  intellectual  power  is  interest  in  our  en- 
vironment. Every  child  whose  faculties  are  in  a  normal 
condition  has  this  power  naturally.  If  it  be  not  im- 
paired by  the  interference  of  adults,  this  power  will  in- 
crease in  propulsive  influence  as  the  child  grows  older. 
As  it  is  the  greatest  intellectual  power,  it  is  therefore 
capable  of  most  unlimited  development.  It  should  be 
the  revcaler  of  all  new  things  to  the  mind — new  speci- 
mens, new  problems,  and  new  relationships.  If  allowed 
to  perform  its  proper  function  in  a  natural  way,  it  gains 
in  awakening  and  directing  power  as  the  child  grows 
older. 

No  two  children  should  be  attracted  by  exactly  the 
same  things  or  combinations  of  things  in  a  walk  in  the 
country,  or  in  any  other  gallery  of  varied  interests.  The 
special  selfhood  of  each  child  sees  in  the  outer  what  cor- 
responds to  its  developing  inner.    The  individual  power 


i: 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      231 


to  see  in  the  outer  that  which  is  adapted  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  inner  at  present  most  active  is  the  arousing 
source  of  all  true  interest.  When  a  parent  or  teacher 
substitutes  his  own  interests  for  those  of  the  child,  the 
child's  interest  i.  weakened  and  made  responsive  instead 
of  self-active.  The  real  life  of  interest  dies,  and  teach- 
ers, after  killing  it,  make  energetic  and  often  fruitless 
efforts  to  galvanize  it  into  spasmodic  responsive  action. 
Individual  self-active  interest  should  be  allowed  to  act 
without  interference.  The  teacher  should  provide  the 
conditions  of  interest  by  bringing  them  to  the  child  or 
guiding  the  child  to  them.  The  child  should  do  its  own 
seeing,  as  the  result  of  self-active  and  not  responsive 
interest. 

Mother  and  father  are  no  doubt  essential  aids  to  the 
child  in  its  happy  and  progressive  growth.  They  are 
needed  by  the  child  to  assist  in  the  solution  of  the  more 
difficult  of  its  self-discovered  problems,  and  in  carrying 
to  a  successful  issue  some  of  its  many  plans  and  experi- 
ments. The  child's  power  of  insight  is  at  first  greater 
than  its  power  of  attainment.  It  sees  problems  that  it 
can  not  solve,  and  it  makes  plans  which  it  is  not  able 
to  carry  out  alone.  It  takes  its  unsolved  questions  to 
mother,  whom  it  loves,  and  in  whose  wisdom  it  has  faith, 
and  she  has  many  opportunities  to  unfold  to  it  the  mys- 
teries of  life  and  growth  and  relationship  that  have  been 
dimly  outlined  in  its  opening  mind.  Children  have  been 
named  "  Question  boxes  "  and  "  Interrogation  points  " 
because  they  ask  for  explanations  of  so  many  questions. 
They  do  not,  however,  submit  all  their  problems  to  their 
friends  for  solution.  They  solve  most  of  their  own 
problems,  and  only  bring  to  their  friends  those  for  which 


' » 


:  mw 


■1 


232 


PROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


m 


they  can  not  find  satisfactory  answers  themselves.  They 
should  be  encouraged  to  bring  their  unsolved  problems 
to  their  friends,  and  great  care  should  be  taken  in  giving 
simple,  clear,  and  complete  answers  to  their  questions, 
or  in  guiding  them  in  finding  the  answers  themselves, 
when  it  is  possible  for  them  to  do  so. 

They  should  receive  similar  encouragement  and  as 
prompt  and  sympathetic  co-operation  when  they  come 
with  plans  which  they  can  not  work  out  or  experiments 
which  baffle  them.  Fathers  have  no  better  opportuni- 
ties to  establish  the  true  relationship  between  their  chil- 
dren and  themselves,  and  at  the  same  time  to  aid  in  de- 
veloping in  them  creative  productivity — one  of  the  most 
essential  elements  in  strong  and  useful  character — than 
are  afforded  when  their  children  come  to  them  with 
plans  or  experiments  which  they  can  not  complete  with- 
out help.  Whoever  helps  a  child  to  accomplish  its  pur- 
poses and  prevent  the  failure  of  its  plans  by  performing 
the  mechanical  work  beyond  its  powers,  or  by  revealing 
to  it  new  mechanical  processes  which  it  can  itself  apply, 
aids  in  its  true  development.  He  does  more:  he  pre- 
vents discouragement  and  the  weakening  of  individual- 
ity. The  child's  nature  rebels  at  failure  to  accomplish 
its  plans.  Nature  always  protests  against  a  violation 
of  her  laws  until  frequent  violation  has  shown  that  her 
protests  are  unavailing.  The  child  is  at  first  made  irri- 
table by  the  failure  of  its  plans,  but  every  successive 
failure  leads  to  greater  discouragement,  until  at  length 
discouragement  produces  paralyzing  indifference,  and 
destroys  the  alertness  and  originality  of  the  mind.  If 
plans  are  not  executed,  selfhood  will  ultimately  cease  to 
plan.    During  the  time  th^t  the  child's  power  to  execute 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      233 

independently  is  weaker  than  its  power  to  plan,  co-oper- 
ative help  from  parents  or  teachers  is  stimulating  to  indi- 
viduality, and  helps  to  develop  the  desire  of  the  child  to 
co-operate  with  its  seniors  when  it  is  able  to  do  so. 

Parents  and  teachers  should  learn  to  preserve  the 
natural  wonder  power  of  children,  and  provide  condi- 
tions for  its  fullest  development.  School  methods  have 
unfortunately  substituted  suggestion  for  spontaneity, 
and  rendered  it  unnecessary,  if  not  impossible,  for  the 
pupils  to  develop  their  own  natural  power  of  self-acting 
interest.  Self -active  interest  is  the  only  true  interest. 
It  alone  makes  man  an  independent  agent,  capable  of 
progressive  upward  and  outward  growth  on  original 
lines.  It  alone  stimulates  the  mind  to  its  most  energetic 
activity  for  the  accomplishment  of  definite  purposes. 
It  alone  produces  the  complete  co-ordination  of  the 
sensor  and  motor  departments  of  the  brain.  Self-active 
interest  is  the  natural  desire  for  knowledge  acting  with 
perfect  freedom,  the  divinely  implanted  wonder  power 
unchecked  by  restriction  and  undiminished  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  interests  of  others.  True  self -active  in- 
terest is  the  essential  motive  to  intellectual  activity  and 
to  the  fullest  apperceptive  increase  in  knowledge. 

The  development  of  self -active  interest  is  clearly  the 
highest  ideal  of  intellectual  education.  The  first  prin- 
ciple underlying  the  development  of  this  power  is  the 
principle  that  underlies  all  growth:  self-activity,  spon- 
taneity in  the  use  of  the  power.  The  teacher's  duty  in 
the  development  of  any  power  in  his  pupils  is  first  to 
provide  appropriate  opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  the 
power,  and,  second,  to  prevent  the  substitution  of  other 
agencies  for  the  power  to  be  developed.    The  true  self- 


'  'i 


ip 


!;!* 


i 


p:; 


.  'i 


,*«• 


1 


VI '^^  ?: 


234 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


active  interest  of  the  child  can  not  be  developed  unless 
it  is  placed  in  conditions  of  interest  appropriate  to  its 
age  and  experience,  and  allowed  to  manifest  choice  in" 
the  expression  of  its  interest.  The  child's  self-active 
interest  receives  little  increase  in  power  or  activity  by 
acting  in  response  to  the  instruction  of  the  teacher.  The 
teacher  is  responsible  for  providing  the  conditions  of  in- 
terest, and  for  aiding  in  the  revelation  of  the  attractive- 
ness of  these  conditions  in  life,  or  action,  or  growth,  or 
constructive  possibilities,  or  beauty  of  form,  colour,  or 
sound,  or  by  combinations  of  these  elements  of  interest. 
He  can  not  devote  too  much  attention  to  the  conditions 
of  interest,  but  he  should  not  try  to  dominate  the  inter- 
est of  the  child. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  even  to  direct  attention 
or  suggest  interest  directly  by  words.  Interest  is  a  natu- 
ral power  of  the  mind  which  possesses  in  itself  the  ele- 
ments of  progressive  growth.  It  goes  out  spontaneously 
in  the  case  of  each  individual  toward  those  things  which 
correspond  to  his  mental  development.  It  is  the  ele- 
mentary agency  in  mental  growth,  and  its  power  and  in- 
tensity increase  as  mental  growth  becomes  more  definite 
and  more  complete.  It  is  naturally  self-active,  and  it 
retains  this  quality  unless  the  direction  of  another  inter- 
feres with  its  spontaneity.  The  weakening  of  this  self- 
active  interest  is  one  of  the  most  direct  ways  in  which 
intellectual  development  can  be  checked. 

It  must  not  be  understood  that  the  teacher  has  no 
function  in  arousing  interest.  There  are  many  ways 
in  which  he  should  stimulate  the  child's  interest.  He 
is  responsible  for  the  selection  of  the  appropriate  en- 
vironment of  material  for  operation  or  investigation  to 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.     235 

suit  different  ages  and  degrees  of  development.  His 
mature  judgment  should  present  knowledge  in  proper 
order  so  that  the  child  may  study  the  various  depart- 
ments of  knowledge  at  the  time  it  is  naturally  interested 
in  them.  He  should  cultivate  his  own  powers  of  illustra- 
tion, narration,  and  exposition,  that  his  necessary  oral 
explanations  may  always  be  brief,  definite,  interesting, 
and  stimulating  to  individual  investigation  by  the  pupils. 
Whatever  he  can  do  to  make  the  external  environment 
of  the  pupil  interesting  to  his  inner  mental  life 
should  be  done.  The  practice  that  should  be  avoided 
most  carefully  is  interference  with  the  action  of  the  inner 
mental  life  of  the  pupil.  Such  a  practice  is  unnatural, 
and  prevents  the  development  of  spontaneous,  self-active 
interest  power.  Interest  that  is  led  out  or  carried  out 
never  develops  much  intensity,  energy,  endurance,  or 
individuality. 

All  "  stamping  and  moulding  "  processes  in  educa- 
tion Froebel  strongly  objected  to.  Any  education  that 
was  mere  overlaying,  or  cramming  in  from  the  outside, 
met  with  his  determined  opposition.  Education  to  him 
was  the  assimilation  of  the  outer  by  the  self-activity  of 
the  inner. 

Individuality  may  be  weakened  by  exercising  the 
child's  conscious  reasoning  power  too  soon,  and  by  fail- 
ure to  sympathize  with  its  imaginative  nature.  We 
should  never  laugh  at  its  odd  fancies  nor  fail  to  show 
sympathetic  appreciation  for  its  earliest  literary  or  artis- 
tic efforts. 

The  true  influence  of  education  on  the  individual  to 
be  educated  is  the  revelation  of  his  individuality  to  him- 
self, and  the  development  of  his  own  power  of  self-de- 


I  f-    A\ 


''      H 


!'' 


iU.', 


'^^ 


J-:  ;.<'■! 


236 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


•   ■'!     :    :i  t 


termination.  To  make  a  boy  conscious  of  his  own 
power,  and  of  his  self-determining  power  to  control  it, 
lays  the  foundation  for  his  highest  happiness  and  most 
l)orfec't  success  in  life. 

Tlie  secret  of  the  complete  development  of  selfhood 
is  the  law  of  self-activity,  one  of  the  most  important  de- 
partments of  which  is  self-expression.  There  is  exactly 
the  same  wide  difference  between  expression  and  self- 
expression  that  has  been  pointed  out  between  activity 
and  self-activity  in  Chapter  IV.  Expression  that  does 
not  express  the  self  in  art,  or  literature,  or  oral  reading, 
or  recitation  usually  arrests  the  development  of  selfhood 
or  individuality. 

One  of  the  commonest  fallacies  in  the  lisi  of  educa- 
tional theories  is  "expression  leads  to  self-expression." 
l*]xpression  and  self-expression  are  the  results  of  two  en- 
tirely different  intellectual  operations.  The  powers  of 
expression  need  culture,  but  they  receive  their  best  cul- 
ture in  expressing  selfhood.  Self  and  expression  should 
not  be  divorced.  Self  should  never  be  sacrificed  to  ex- 
pression, or  spontaneity  and  originality  will  be  lost.  The 
methods  of  training  expression  in  the  schools  of  the 
past  have  prevented  the  full  development  of  individu- 
ality. 

"  My  pupils  write  so  much  alike  that  you  can  hardly 
see  any  difference  between  their  copy-books,"  says  a 
proud  teacher.  Empty  boast!  Such  a  result  means  in- 
jury to  the  development  of  the  individuality  of  every 
pupil.  Writing  should  be  more  than  mere  letter  forma- 
tion. Our  ideal  in  writing  should  be  to  train  a  free  hand 
to  move  automatically  in  harmony  with  a  free  mind. 
Children  have  been  trained  to  draw  letters,  not  to  write. 


•tl' 


m    I 


» 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      237 

We  have  sacrificed  freedom  to  form,  and  then  vainly 
hoped  for  the  freedom.  We  have  restricted  spontaneity 
by  limiting  lines,  by  direction  lines,  and  by  faint  letters 
to  be  traced.  We  have  cramped  the  fingers  and  confined 
the  free  movement  of  the  arm,  and  the  cramping  and 
restriction  have  reacted  on  the  souls  of  the  children. 
We  have  made  our  pupils  slow  copyists  and  slavish  imi- 
tators of  writing;  wc  should  have  given  power  to  ex- 
press thought  rapidly  on  paper.  The  two  elements  in 
good  writing  arc  free  rapid  movement  and  accurate  letter 
formation.  We  have  striven  for  the  second  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  first,  and  in  doing  so  we  have  weakened  the 
character  of  the  race. 

Copying  headlines,  like  all  conscious  imitation,  tends 
to  make  a  race  of  copyists,  of  unreasoning  imitators,  who 
live  and  die  in  bondage  to  those  who  assume  the  right 
to  do  their  thinking  for  them.  The  time  must  come 
when  there  shall  be  no  more  mere  copying  in  learning 
to  write;  when  writing  shall  be,  in  mechanical  execu- 
tion as  well  as  in  thought  expression,  the  representation 
of  conceptions  defined  in  the  mind  of  the  child,  not  of 
form  conceptions  defined  on  paper  by  some  other  person. 
The  true  test  of  writing  is  not  the  writing  done  while 
the  mind  is  concentrated  on  the  writing  itself,  but  the 
writing  done  while  the  mind  is  filled  with  original 
thought  which  has  to  be  expressed  in  written  form. 
Copying  subordinates  individuality,  and  prevents  the 
true  conception  of  the  independence  and  responsibility 
of  the  human  soul.  All  conscious  imitation,  even  of 
good,  is  weakening. 

Imitation  by  unconscious  childhood  is  the  process  by 
which  the  self-activity  of  the  child  is  evolved  from  the 


il 


' 


s< 


ill 


238 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


II' 

i 
fit 


i 


IJ 


■  *''  i 

ih    ■ 

[1; 

km 

■  n-  ■■ 

Mil      <     ! 


S^^  ■l- 


instinctive  bodily  movements  made  by  the  child  to  de- 
fine its  muscular  powers  and  lay  the  foundation  for 
brain  and  neurological  co-ordination,  liut  there  is  a  vast 
difference  between  unconscious  and  conscious  imitation. 
The  former  is  natural  and  helpful;  the  latter  is  certain 
to  weaken  individuality  and  character.  As  the  human 
race  rises  to  higher  planes  it  loses  the  tendency  to  imi- 
tate. The  schools  should  help  men  to  rise  by  climbing, 
not  by  holding  on  to  some  one  else.  We  should  not  be 
satisfied  with  any  teaching  process  based  on  imitation. 

It  is  wrong  to  make  the  child  express  our  matured 
conceptions  of  the  form  of  any  object.  It  should  ex- 
press its  own  mental  picture,  not  ours.  Its  power  to 
express  by  hand,  or  tongue,  or  face,  or  gesture,  is  weak- 
ened every  time  it  tries  to  express  what  it  does  not  clearly 
conceive.  Its  power  to  express  its  individual  self  is 
weakened  every  time  it  attempts  to  express  the  concep- 
tion of  anybody  else.  Such  a  course  destroys  the  har- 
mony that  should  exist  between  conception  and  repre- 
sentation, and  loss  of  harmony  always  means  loss  of 
power.  The  crude  lines  made  by  a  child  to  represent  a 
bird,  a  worm,  a  flower,  a  man,  or  a  horse,  may  suggest 
no  picture  to  our  minds,  but  they  are  realities  to  the 
child  who  made  them.  A  child's  efforts  to  express  its 
own,  not  some  other  person's  conceptions,  defines  its 
conceptions,  and  clearer  conceptions  give  greater  power 
of  expression. 

The  fettering  of  spontaneity  and  individunlity  *^ 
divorcing  self  from  expression  in  the  use  of  ^  'ni- 
especially  in  bad  methods  of  teaching  oral  e     ressioi  , 
has  been  more  destructive  of  individual  power  than  e^  (>n 
the  methods  of  training  in  expression  with  the  hand. 


Id  to  dc- 

ition  for 
is  a  vast 

nitation. 
certain 
human 

y  to  imi- 

limbing, 

1  not  be 
nitation. 
matured 
3uld  ex- 

ower  to 
is  weak- 
t  clearly 

self  is 
coneep- 
the  har- 
i  repre- 

loss  of 
'esent  a 
suggest 

to  the 
ress  its 
nes  its 

power 

lity 

^'-  » 

essioi  , 

n  evon 

hand. 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      239 

Language,  according  to  Froebel,  should  be  "  the  self- 
aclive  oulward  expressinn  of  the  inner.  It  is  the  exprea- 
t'ion  of  tile  human  mind,  as  Nature  is  the  expression  of 
the  Divine  mind."  Both  in  schools  of  elocution  and  in 
public  schools  expression  has  taken  the  place  of  self- 
expression.  No  one  can  ever  regain  his  highest  power 
to  express  his  own  thoughts  who  was  forced  into  formal- 
ism by  bad  methods  of  teaching  oral  reading  when  a 
child.  There  can  be  no  method  by  which  young  children 
can  be  kept  for  years  expressing  the  thoughts  of  others 
in  the  language  of  others  without  arresting  the  develop- 
ment of  self-expression.  Oral  expression  should  be  an 
ever-growing  power.  Men  possess  more  power  of  oral 
expression  in  childhood  than  in  maturity;  more  freedom, 
more  naturalness,  and  less  self-consciousness.  This  most 
unsatisfactory  result  must  be  brought  about  by  improjier 
methods  of  teaching.  Oral  expression  would  keep  pace 
with  the  growing  soul  if  it  were  develojied  as  self-expres- 
sion, and  not  as  the  expression  of  the  thought  and  lan- 
guage of  others. 

Nearly  all  training  in  oral  expression  given  in  the 
schools  has  been  limited  to  oral  reading,  yet  oral  read- 
ing is  the  least  developing  form  of  oral  expression.  As 
practised  in  the  past,  it  hfiS  made  men  weaker  than  chil- 
dren in  the  essentialr  of  good  oral  expression.  It  is  an- 
other illustration  of  the  deterioration  of  strengthening 
self-consciousness  into  weakening  self-consciousness 
through  improper  methods. 

Oral  self-expression  has  received  very  little  attention 
yet,  even  in  the  most  advanced  schools.  It  is  the  only 
form  of  oral  expression  that  gives  complete  development 
to  selfhood  or  individuality.    "  Allowing  the  thoughts 


ill 


Ml,; 


240 


PROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


of  others  to  run  through  our  minds  is  not  thinking." 
Expressing  the  thoughts  of  others  in  the  language  of 
otliers  has  little  if  any  beneficial  effect  on  the  thought 
or  self-expression  of  the  child.  As  usually  practised  it 
is  injurious  in  its  influence,  because  it  interferes  witli 
thought  concentration,  it  weakens  the  natural  power 
of  self-expression,  and  develops  weakening  self-con- 
sciousness. Even  where  oral  self-expression  has  been 
introduced  into  schools,  teachers  usually  prevent  com- 
plete self-expression  by  assigning  the  subjects  for  the 
pupils. 

In  most  schools,  however,  the  methods  at  present  in 
use  develop  the  form  cr  means  of  expression  without 
aiming  to  develop  the  individuality  that  should  be  ex- 
pressed, and  that  should  give  life  and  impressiveneas  and 
originality  to  the  expression.  In  all  forms  of  representa- 
tive expression,  modelling,  painting,  drawing,  etc.,  the 
pupils  have  been  trained  to  imitate  the  representations  of 
others,  instead  of  revealing  their  own  inner  life  of 
thought  and  feeling.  Even  dramatic  expression  has  been 
taught  by  mechanical  rules  describing  attitudes  and 
facial  expressions  to  correspond  with  the  various  con- 
ditions of  thought  and  shades  of  feeling.  These  pro- 
cesses, by  which  teachers  attempted  to  teach  expression 
from  without  instead  of  from  within,  led  to  simulation, 
not  stimulation,  to  formalism  and  hypocrisy  instead  of 
true  vitality  of  character.  The  soul,  the  selfhood,  the 
individuality  was  not  trained. 

The  expression  of  original  thought  has  not  yet  re- 
ceived due  attention  in  connection  with  either  written 
or  oral  language  training.  The  great  aim  should  be 
thought  expression  in  both  cases.    Care  should  be  taken 


m^^w 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF  EXPRESSION.      241 


inking." 
[uage  of 
thouorlit 
ctised  it 
•es  with 
1  power 
elf -con- 
as  been 
it  eom- 
for  the 

Jsent  in 
without 
be  ex- 
ess  and 
esenta- 
tc.,  the 
ions  of 
life  of 
as  been 
es  and 
is  con- 
?e  pro- 
ression 
ilation, 
ead  of 
>d,  the 

7et  re- 
written 
lid  be 
taken 


to  guide  the  child  to  new  and  richer  departments  of 
thought.  The  inner  should  be  stored  and  enriched,  and 
its  enrichment  is  the  surest  way  to  enrich  and  beautify 
the  language.  Clear,  strong  thoughts  never  lack  ex- 
pression. Henry  Irving  was  right  when  he  said  to  the 
Harvard  students:  "  If  you  are  true  to  your  individu- 
ality, and  have  great  original  thoughts,  they  will  find 
their  way  to  the  hearts  of  others  as  surely  as  the  upland 
waters  burst  their  wav  to  the  sea." 

Froebel  said:  "  Works  of  high  art "  (in  any  depart- 
ment— literary,  artistic,  or  constructive)  "  are  always 
representations  of  the  most  individual,  the  most  per- 
sonal inner  life  of  the  artist."  The  work  of  everv  man 
and  woman  would  be  of  a  higher  character  if  the  schools 
paid  more  attention  to  the  development  of  the  individual 
inner  life  of  each  child. 

After  describing  the  folly  of  allowing  children  to 
grow  up  without  enriching  their  inner  lives,  their  minds 
and  spiritual  natures,  and  of  substituting  for  pure  sym- 
bolic development  and  Nature  contemplation  "  crude, 
dead,  heartless  words,"  he  says:  "  And  nevertheless  we 
expect  our  children,  who  have  grown  up  so  barren  and 
empty  of  feeling,  to  understand  poets  and  Nature  at  a 
later  period.  Then  the  drill-master's  art — even  in  our 
day  and  with  the  children  of  cultured  parents — is  ex- 
pected to  impart  its  elocutionary  tricks.  Behold  the 
poor  child,  vain  and  trembling,  conceited  or  timid,  re- 
citing his  piece,  and  say  who  is  most  to  be  pitied,  the 
child,  his  teacher,  the  poem,  the  poet,  or  the  audience." 

The  following  is  written  in  the  same  spirit:  "It 
would  prove  a  boon  to  our  children  and  a  blessing  to 
coming  generations  if  we  could  but  come  to  see  that  we 


f  K 


>.r 


n 


»     :• 


M' 


(1 


t  ■ 

it 

t!     > 


242 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


> 


possess  a  great  oppressive  load  of  extraneous  and  merely 
external  information  and  culture,  that  we  foolislily  seek 
to  increase  this  from  day  to  day,  and  that  we  are  very 
poor  in  inner  knowledge,  in  information  evolved  from 
our  own  soul  and  grown  up  with  it.  We  should  at  least 
cease  making  a  vain  display  of  the  thoughts,  the  knowledge, 
and  even  the  feelings  of  others." 

The  development  of  individuality  in  humanity  is  the 
true  basis  for  universal  freedom.  It  alone  can  make 
men  independent,  and  no  man  can  be  free  till  he  is  in- 
dependent, till  he  is  self-respecting  and  self-determin- 
ing. Diesterweg,  in  writing  on  behalf  of  Froebel,  said: 
"  What  might  not  be  the  consequences  if  the  dominion 
of  acquired  dead  notions,  and  that  intellectual  servitude 
which  has  been  propagated  from  generation  to  generation 
hitherto,  could  be  completely  banished?  "  To  make  man 
worthy  of  freedom  was  Froebel's  aim.  This  element 
in  his  work  alarmed  the  Prussian  Government  so  that 
it  proscribed  the  kindergarten  in  order  to  prevent  the 
spread  of  liberal  ideas  regarding  individual  independ- 
ence. It  did  not  know  that  Froebel's  greatest  ideal 
was  unity  or  community,  and  that  by  his  educational 
system  he  was  not  only  making  men  worthy  of  freedom, 
but  at  the  same  time  laying  the  only  logical  founda- 
tion for  harmony  between  individualism  and  social- 
ism. 

Teachers  should  remember  that  the  destruction  of 
individuality  is  most  complete  when  the  child  is  most 
constantly  guided  by  the  teacher.  Closely  graded 
schools  are  more  likely  to  weaken  selfhood  than  rural 
schools.  The  country  boy  is  free  for  a  considerable  part 
of  each  day,  even  in  school,  from  the  teacher's  direct  in- 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      243 


is  the 
make 


terference,  so  that  his  individual  efforts  are  not  constant- 
ly checked. 

Individuality  may  be  restricted  by  school  pro- 
grammes. Programmes  have  been  too  narrow  and  too 
abstract,  especially  in  primary  classes.  The  programmes 
should  be  wide,  because  there  can  be  no  learning  with- 
out attention,  no  attention  without  interest,  and  no  gen- 
eral interest  can  be  awakened  and  sustained  without  a 
variety  of  subjects  for  study  and  work.  All  children  are 
not  interested  in  the  same  subjects.  Attempts  to  force 
a  child  to  be  equally  interested  in  all  subjects  weaken  its 
power  of  attention.  The  programme  should  be  wide 
enough  to  stimulate  each  child  to  interested  effort  on 
the  lines  of  its  highest  individual  power.  It  is  only 
when  so  working  that  man's  growth  is  as  definite,  as 
rapid,  and  as  harmonious  as  it  should  be.  "  Blessed  is 
the  man  that  hath  found  his  work,"  said  Carlyle;  "  let 
him  ask  no  other  blessedness."  When  a  child's  life  runs 
along  the  channel  of  its  greatest  individual  power  all 
the  other  springs  of  power  in  its  being  flow  into  that 
channel,  its  life  becomes  broader  and  deeper,  and  its 
current  stronger  as  the  years  pass  away. 

The  worst  schools  are  those  in  which  there  is  least 
self-activity  in  working  out  realizations  of  original  con- 
ceptions by  the  pupils.  No  teaching  should  be  allowed 
to  end  with  the  acquisition  of  power.  Power  should  be 
applied.  Control  should  be  exercised  by  the  teacher  in 
the  production  of  the  varied  powers  that  enter  into  the 
characters  of  all  well-trained  men  and  women;  spour 
taneity  should  be  unrestricted  in  the  use  of  these  powers 
by  each  individual  in  the  execution  of  his  own  plans. 

In  the  development  of  the  universal  elements  of  char« 
17 


]\'l 


I  . 

I    v' 


'I 


1 


i  tl 


Til 

ill 


|i{; 


1 


III 


'J 


f  ■ 


■:U 


10  y 
p.' 


'M 


: ! 


if'';- 


I. 


-^ 


244 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


acter  power  the  trained  teacher  finds  his  true  place, 
but  in  the  unfolding  of  individual  character  the  wisest 
and  most  loving  teacher  should  reverently  stand  with 
uncovered  head  to  watch  the  development  of  the 
Divine.  The  teacher  may  cultivate  power,  and  may 
stimulate  effort  by  supplying  the  conditions  of  growth, 
but  independent  activity  alone  can  give  life  and 
vigour  and  progressive  expansion  to  individual  char- 
acter. 

All  methods  of  developing  self-expression  from  with- 
out are  barriers  to  real  spontaneity.  In  elocution  or  oral 
expression,  for  instance,  the  almost  universal  plan  of 
giving  mechanical  rules  for  emphasis  and  inflection, 
specifying  the  tones  of  voice  or  gestures  to  be  assumed 
to  represent  the  feelings,  or  prescribing  the  facial  ex- 
pressions to  be  made  to  simulate  passions,  develops 
formalism  and  hypocrisy,  not  soul  growth.  The  soul 
should  dominate  the  body,  and  the  attempts  to  make  the 
body  respond  to  or  suggest  thoughts  or  feelings  that 
have  no  real  existence  in  the  individual  consciousness 
helps  to  destroy  the  real  power  of  body,  mind,  and  spirit. 
The  body  may  be  made  erect,  graceful,  active,  and  the 
voice  may  be  made  full,  rich,  elastic,  pure,  by  careful 
training;  but  by  far  the  most  important  training  is  that 
which  cultivates  the  mind  and  heart  and  accustoms  them 
to  the  natural  control  of  body  and  voice.  All  kinds  of 
training  in  self-expression  are  wrong  that  devote  atten- 
tion directly  to  the  expression  more  than  to  the  self  of 
the  pupil. 

The  highest  destiny  f  each  human  being  is  the 
revelation  of  the  Divine  essence  within  him,  the  con- 
scious unfolding  of  his  individuality.    Education  should 


rrr:^' 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      245 


f 


place, 
wisest 
with 
the 
may 
owth, 
3    and 
char- 


aid  man  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  high  destiny. 
All  education  that  makes  children  conscious  imitators, 
that  assumes  to  create  interest,  that  forces  the  develop- 
ment of  any  power  too  early,  that  substitutes  words  for 
definite  conceptions,  that  stamps  and  moulds  to  pattern, 
and  that  tries  to  educate  from  without  instead  of  from 
within,  weakens  selfhood  and  prevents  the  achievement 
of  man's  true  life  purpose.  Froebel  said,  "  All  that 
does  not  grow  out  of  one's  inner  being,  all  that  is  not 
one's  own  original  feeling  or  thought,  or  at  least  awak- 
ens that,  oppresses  and  defaces  the  individuality  of  man 
instead  of  calling  it  forth; "  and  again,  "  The  instruction 
forced  upon  the  child^s  mind,  which  does  not  correspond 
to  its  inner  stage  of  development  and  its  measure 
of  power,  rohs  him  of  his  original  view  of  things, 
and  with  it  of  his  greatest  power  and  capacity  to 
impress  the  stamp  of  his  own  individuality  upon  his 
being." 

Kousseau  expressed  part  of  this  great  thought  when 
he  wrote,  "  Every  truth  given  too  early  by  words  plants 
the  seeds  of  vice  in  the  childish  soul." 

Individual  powers  may  be  trained  to  activity  with- 
out developing  the  individuality.  Whenever  the  indi- 
vidual is  developed  in  operative  power,  and  not  in 
originating  and  directing  power,  true  individuality  is  en- 
slaved. Its  proper  functions  are  usurped  by  the  teach- 
er's personality. 

Mrs.  Browning,  who  among  the  poets  had  the  most 
definite  revelation  of  individual  responsibility,  makes 
Aurora  Leigh,  in  refusing  to  marry  the  man  whom  she 
dearly  loved  on  the  conventional  condition  of  the  ab- 
sorption of  her  life-work  in  his,  say: 


I 


^1 


l.'l 

It       a  I 


u 


m 


Sir 

ii 


246 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


•    •     • 


You  forget  too  much 
That  every  creature,  female  as  the  male, 
Stauds  singiu  in  responsible  act  and  thought, 
As  also  in  birth  and  death. 

And,  when  parting  from  liim,  she  said,  recognising  that 
individuality  was  more  sacred  than  even  love: 

...  I  go  hence 
To  London,  to  the  gathering  place  of  souls, 
To  live  mine  straight  out. 

Mrs  Browning  aimed  to  make  Aurora  Leigh  the  strong- 
est, truest  type  of  female  character  revealed  in  litera- 
ture. The  central  element  of  power  in  her  character 
she  made  a  reverent  recognition  of  her  power  and  duty. 
Undwarfed  by  early  tyranny,  free  in  childhood  from  the 
coercion  of  a  dominant  soul,  her  soul  became  no  incon- 
gruous mixture,  but  remained  its  own  real  self  as  it  de- 
v('l()[)ed.  To  such  souls  Ciod  always  speaks  clearly.  She 
heard  his  word  and  lived  it.  She  saw  his  glory  and  re- 
vealed it.  She  felt  his  power  and  reproduced  it.  She 
recognised  the  divinity  in  her  own  life  as  her  individu- 
ality, and  she  was  true  to  it,  and  "  lived  her  soul  straight 
out." 

Froebel's  ideal  of  individual  evolution  from  within 
is  the  surest  hope  of  the  evolution  of  humanity  to  purity 
and  strength.  The  inner  must  be  the  centre  from  which 
the  life  power  springs. 

The  Christ  himself  had  been  no  lawgiver, 
Unless  be  had  given  the  life  too  with  the  law. 

The  growth  of  individual  inner  life  by  originative 
and  directive  self-activity  is  a  vital  law  in  education. 
Whatever  there  is  of  duty,  of  purity,  of  holy  aspiration 
in  the  child*s  soul  should  be  helped  to  grow.  Soul  growth 


INDIVIDUALITY  AND  SELF-EXPRESSION.      247 

must  be  from  within.  Emerson  was  right  in  saying, 
"  Thougli  we  travel  the  world  over  to  find  the  beautiful, 
we  must  carry  it  with  us  or  we  find  it  not." 

The  child  is  full  of  holy  aspirations.  Lead  these 
aspirations  out,  and  everywhere  in  the  wondrous  wor'd 
they  will  find  corresponding  beauty,  whose  enjoyment 
will  prepare  them  for  the  a})preciation  of  supernal  glories 
that  throughout  the  universe  await  the  recognition  of 
a  higher  spiritual  insight.  Each  young  heart  has  a  thou- 
sand strings  that  should  pour  forth  enrapturing  har- 
mony forever.  Break  none  of  the  strings.  Dare  not 
to  play  on  the  wonderful  instrument.  No  other  hand 
can  reveal  its  melody  but  the  hand  of  the  child  itself. 


il 


Uiil 


> 


J  I 

f  ."  «l 

i 


f 


^! 


■  ii\ 


\  n 


!'!'' 


u 


IN 


i;  ■! 


i  »• 


r 


fe:t 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OBJECTIVE    TEACHING    AND    MANUAL    TRAINING. 

English  and  American  teacliing  is  weaker  in  its  use 
of  objects  than  in  any  other  department  of  school  work. 
Pestalozzi's  aim  in  using  objects  so  largely  in  his  school 
was  to  develop  the  powers  by  which  knowledge  is  re- 
ceived into  the  mind.  His  purpose  was  to  make  all  men 
more  comprehensively  receptive,  to  open  wider  the  win- 
dows of  the  soul,  so  that  streams  of  light  and  knowledge 
might  flow  more  freely  into  the  mind.  English  and 
American  teachers  are  even  yet  fettered  by  the  concep- 
tion that  objects  are  to  be  used  merely  to  communicate 
knowledge,  to  give  clearer  conceptions  more  easily,  more 
quickly,  more  definitely,  and  therefore  more  perma- 
nently. Objects  are  usually  brought  into  the  classroom 
that  pupils  may  learn  their  qualities,  their  origin,  their 
construction,  and  their  uses.  Even  in  some  of  the  nor- 
mal schools,  both  in  England  and  America,  object  teach- 
ing has  deteriorated  into  mere  information  lessons,  or 
"  lessons  on  common  things."  Books  on  object  teach- 
ing are  in  most  cases  classified  collections  of  facts  relat- 
ing to  objects,  which  are  to  be  reproduced  by  the  teacher 
and  afterward  memorized  by  the  unfortunate  pupils. 
Commonly  but  one  object  is  used  for  the  whole  class, 

848 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.   249 


and  it  is  of  service  only  as  the  objective  title  to  a  dull 
and  necessarily  uninteresting  and  undeveloping  lesson. 
In  good  schools,  it  is  true,  every  child  has  in  its  hands 
a  specimen  of  the  object  under  consideration,  or  each 
pupil  individually  examines  the  object  and  makes  draw- 
ings or  models  of  it;  but  there  are  comparatively  few 
schools  in  which  objects  are  used  for  any  higher  purpose 
than  to  give  increased  knowledge  of  the  things  studied 
or  to  illustrate  lessons  on  number,  form,  colour,  etc. 

Such  lessons  are  infinitely  better  than  lessons  in 
which  information  is  communicated  by  words,  but  they 
are  much  inferior  in  aim  to  the  lessons  Pestalozzi  tried 
to  give  with  objects.  The  very  name  "  object  lesson  " 
is  misleading,  as  it  is  calculated  to  direct  attention  to 
the  object  more  than  to  the  child.  Whenever  knowl- 
edge predominates  over  the  development  of  the  child 
in  the  mind  of  the  teacher  and  in  the  plans  and  meth- 
ods of  the  schoolroom,  the  education  is  defective. 
Knowledge  is  of  great  importance,  but  if  it  is  made  the 
dominant  ideal  neither  the  development  of  the  child 
nor  the  communication  of  knowledge  can  reach  its  best 
limit.  Pestalozzi's  lessons  with  objects  gave  knowledge 
to  his  pupils,  but  knowledge  was  not  their  direct  aim. 
Increase  in  power  and  activity  of  faculty  was  his  ideal. 

Froebel  was  not  satisfied  with  Pestalozzi*s  use  of 
objects.  He  was  never  satisfied  with  any  method  that 
had  for  its  aim  the  development  of  receptivity  alone. 
He  knew  that  receptivity  was  but  the  initial  step  in  the 
related  sequence  of  receptivity,  reflection,  and  execution; 
and  he  never  forgot  that,  while  the  subordinate  opera- 
tions in  a  progressively  related  sequence  have  little  if 
any  direct  influence  on  the  development  of  the  higher, 


r 


i\ 


hi 


If 


I' 


*• 


fi;<  fi*(. 


It  : 


ru 


{-,4- 


250 


FHOEBEL'8  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


tho  activity  of  the  liighcst  sla^o  of  any  soqiu'iico  must 
lU'ccKsarily  cal!  ail  subordinate  processes  into  their  most 
complete,  most  natural,  anci  most  develoj)ing  activity. 

Kroebel,  therefore,  made  creativeness  the  all-inclu- 
sive mental  operation,  knowing  that  it  required  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  reasoning  and  receptive  powers  to  be  more 
energetic,  more  definite,  and  more  productive  than  any 
subordinate  operation.  His  friend  and  coworker,  Barop, 
wrote:  "  The  awakening  of  this  eager  desire  for  learn- 
ing and  creative  activity  was  one  of  the  fundamental 
thoughts  of  Frederick  Frocbel's  mind.  The  object  leach- 
ing of  Pestalozzi  seemed  to  him  not  to  go  far  enough;  and 
he  was  always  seeking  to  regard  man  not  only  as  a  re- 
ceptive being,  but  a  creative  and  especially  a  productive 


one. 

Froebel  aimed  to  communicate  knowledge,  to  illus- 
trate abstractions,  to  arouse,  define,  and  strengthen  the 
observant  or  receptive  powers,  and  to  train  the  reflec- 
tive or  reasoning  powers  by  his  objective  work.  But  he 
aimed  to  do  much  more  than  this.  These  are  but  steps 
leading  (o  man's  highest  mental  function,  originality, 
croativiiy,  or  the  revelation  of  individuality  by  produc- 
tive self-expression.  Froebel  used  material  things  to 
reveal  selfhood,  and  the  assimilation  of  knowledge,  the 
increase  in  the  power,  the  accuracy  and  the  quickness  of 
the  receptive  faculties,  and  the  improvement  of  the  rea- 
soning powers  resulted  as  absolutely  necessary  accom- 
paniments of  the  creativeness. 

By  his  gifts  and  occupations  he  provided  for  a  most 
comprehensive  system  of  arousing  the  child's  observant 
powers,  of  giving  new  conceptions  regarding  mathemati- 
cal forms  and  principles,  of  unfolding  the  artistic  and 


R  ♦. 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.   251 


constructive  elements  in  the  child's  mind,  and  of  defin- 
ing all  these  developing  ideals  by  using  varied  kinds  of 
material  to  express  in  visible  form  its  own  original  con- 
ceptions. How  utterly  insignificant  is  the  common 
object  work  of  the  schools  when  compared  with  this  com- 
prehensive use  of  material  in  making  the  child's  environ- 
ment the  direct  agency  in  the  development  of  its  indi- 
viduality! 

Ilis  gifts  were  chosen  with  great  care  and  wisdom 
to  suit  the  unfolding  consciousness  of  the  child,  to  fill 
it  with  new  conceptions  suitable  to  its  advancement,  and 
to  aid  it  in  its  artistic,  mathematical,  and  simple  con- 
structive development.  The  occupations  give  produc- 
tive employment  to  the  child,  and  develop  its  inventive 
power,  its  artistic  ability,  and  its  constructive  power; 
in  short,  they  provide  means  of  expression  for  the  child's 
original  conceptions,  and  reveal  its  inner  powers  to  itself 
and  its  teachers. 

There  are  many  points  of  superiority  in  Froebel's 
objective  work  when  compared  with  that  done  in  most 
schools.  In  ordinary  objective  work  the  child  is  recep- 
tive, Froebel  made  it  creative;  the  schools  give  in- 
formation, Froebel  gave  power;  the  schools  allow  the 
child  to  see,  or  at  best  to  examine,  the  object,  Froebel 
allowed  it  to  use  it;  the  schools  ask  the  child  what  it 
can  find  out  about  the  object,  Froebel  encouraged  it  to 
find  what  it  could  do  with  it;  the  schools  sometimes 
permit  the  child  to  make  a  representation  of  the  object, 
Froebel  required  it  to  transform  it  into  some  other  form 
as  an  expression  of  an  original  thought  of  its  own;  the 
schools  are  satisfied  with  increasing  the  store  of  knowl- 
edge, or  at  best  with  enlarging  faculty  power,  Froebel 


,if 


!  I  - 

*  i  . 

I  ^ 


252 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


M 


ISM, 


desired  the  aHsimilation  of  knowledge  by  using  it  as  it 
is  acquired,  and  exercised  the  whole  productive  intel- 
lect; the  schools  bring  the  outer  material  to  the  inner 
life  of  the  child,  Froebel  led  the  child's  inner  life  to 
dominate  and  transform  its  material  environment. 

"  The  child  must  reproduce  with  matter  what  he 
has  received  into  himself  from  the  external  world  in 
order  to  understand  it."  Froebel  did  not  mean  by  this 
statement  that  what  is  taken  in  is  to  be  reproduced  just 
as  it  is  received.  The  statement  is  a  condensation  of  his 
principle  that  receptivity  alone  can  not  make  knowledge 
clear,  that  the  internal  must  use  the  external  before  the 
outer  becomes  really  a  part  of  the  inner. 

Froebel  gave  a  spiritual  meaning  to  all  material 
things.  "  It  is  quite  a  different  thing,"  he  says,  "  wheth- 
er we  look  upon  concrete  things  and  facts  as  merely  ma- 
terial, the  things  and  facts  serving  for  this  or  that  out- 
ward purpose,  or  contemplate  them  as  the  outward  form 
of  spiritual  contents,  as  the  intermedium  of  higher 
truths  and  higher  knowledge."  He  taught  that  "  it  is 
in  this  sense  that  education  needs  to  use  the  material 
world."  Teachers  may  not  be  able  to  comprehend  this 
symbolic  use  of  material  things  as  clearly  as  Froebel  did, 
but  the  conception  of  his  aim  in  using  objects  should 
revolutionize  the  teaching  of  so-called  "  object  lessons." 

It  is  in  the  department  of  manual  training  that  the 
schools  are  now  gaining  their  clearest  ideas  of  Froebel's 
use  of  material  things  for  the  development  of  the  inner 
life  of  the  child.  Even  here,  as  in  object  teaching  proper, 
teachers  have  passed  through  the  narrow  utilitarian 
stage  before  reaching  the  educational  bftsis  for  introduc 
ing  manual  training  into  the  schools. 


mn 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.   253 


» 


Frocbel  saw  the  need  of  manual  training  to  broaden 
the  school  programme,  to  give  the  race  greater  skill,  and 
to  lead  men  to  love  work;  but  he  advocated  its  intro- 
duction into  schools  for  much  stronger  reasons.  His 
reasons  were  educational,  not  economic  or  utilitarian. 
He  valued  the  change  wrought  in  selfhood  more  than  the 
products  of  its  work  or  the  improvement  in  hand  skill. 

The  intellectual  and  moral  advantages  of  manual 
training  are  gradually  unfolding  in  the  minds  of  edu- 
cators, but  none  of  Froebel's  successors  have  as  yet  taken 
as  high  ground  as  he  did  in  regard  to  them.  He  made 
work  a  handmaid  of  religion,  and  believed  that,  if  chil- 
dren were  trained  to  regard  work  as  a  means  of  self-ex- 
pression, it  would  always  be  to  them  a  means  of  joy — the 
joy  that  should  always  spring  from  the  accomplishment 
of  a  true  inner  purpose.  "  Early  work,"  he  says,  "  guided 
in  accordance  with  its  inner  meaning,  confirms  and  ele- 
vates religion.  Keligion  without  industry,  without  work, 
is  liable  to  be  lost  in  empty  dreams,  worthless  visions, 
idle  fancies.  Similarly,  work  or  industry  without  reli- 
gion degrades  man  into  a  beast  of  burden,  a  machine." 

"  God  creates  and  works  productively  in  uninter- 
rupted continuity.  .  .  .  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image;  therefore  man  should  create  and  bring  forth  like 
God.  The  spirit  of  man  should  hover  over  the  shape- 
less, and  move  it  that  it  may  take  shape  and  form,  a  dis- 
tinct being  and  life  of  its  own.  This  is  the  high  meaningf 
the  deep  significance,  the  great  purpose  of  work  and  indus- 
try, of  productive  and  creative  activity.  We  become  truly 
Godlike  in  diligence  and  industry,  in  working  and  doing, 
which  are  accompanied  by  the  clear  perception  or  even 
by  the  vaguest  feeling  that  thereby  we  represent  the 


j!^ 


\\  ( 


I      E 


I  Fh 


ii 


^ 


1 1 


254 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


n 


,1 


inner  in  the  outer;  that  we  give  body  to  spirit  and  form 
to  thought;  that  we  render  visible  the  invisible." 

"  Primarily  and  in  truth  man  works  only  that  his 
spiritual,  Divine  essence  may  assume  outward  form,  and 
that  thuii  he  may  be  enabled  to  recognise  his  own  spir- 
itual, Divine  nature  and  the  innermost  being  of  God." 

Froebel  saw,  too,  the  purely  intellectual  advantages 
of  manual  training.  "  Plastic  material  representation 
in  life  and  through  doing,  united  with  thought  and 
speech,  is  by  far  more  developing  and  cultivating  than 
the  merely  verbal  representation  of  ideas.  The  life  of 
the  boy  has,  indeed,  no  purpose  hut  that  of  the  outer 
represtntriion  of  his  self;  his  life  is,  in  truth,  but  an  ex- 
ternal representation  of  his  inner  being,  of  his  power, 
purticularbj  in  and  through  maieriaV* 

The  most  important  products  of  manual  training  are 
tiic  invisible,  not  the  visijle.  Brain  making  and  brain 
co-ordination  are  the  direct  results  of  manual  training. 
Nearly  all  school  processes  develop  only  a  one-power 
brain.  Every  educational  process  that  either  communi- 
cates knowledge  directly  to  the  child  or  trains  the  child 
to  acquire  knowledge  for  itself,  and  stops  ihere^  develops 
the  sensor  or  receiving  brain  power  only.  It  matters 
little,  so  far  as  completti  brain  development  ia  concerned, 
whether  the  knowledge  is  comm'"^rcated  by  words  or 
through  real  things,  whether  it  is  received  from  the 
teacher  ready  made  or  gathered  by  the  pupil  himself. 
If  school  education  stops  at  receptivity  and  reflection,  at 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge  and  the  development  of 
the  knowledge- gathering  and  reasoning  powers,  the 
motor  brain  remains  undeveloped,  and  the  co-ordination 
of  the  sensor  and  motor  neurological  systems  remains 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.    255 


practically  uninfluenced  by  school  education.  Fortu- 
nately there  are  many  opportunities  for  the  development 
of  these  most  important  departments  of  brain  power 
outside  of  school,  but  they  are  fewer  and  less  stimulat- 
ing in  cities  than  in  rural  districts,  and  men  are  gather- 
ing in  increasingly  large  numbers  in  cities.  Even  in  the 
country,  however,  the  schools  should  leave  no  important 
part  of  the  child's  development  to  chance;  but  there  is 
a  much  greater  need  of  manual  training  in  cities  and 
towns  than  in  rural  districts,  not  merely  to  give  manual 
skill  as  a  basis  for  industrial  success,  but  to  aid  in  the 
development  and  co-ordination  of  the  brain.  Fruebel 
believed  that  a  child's  evolution  could  not  be  completed 
in  perfect  manhood  unless  it  was  brought  in  early  years 
"  under  the  influence  of  Nature,  of  useful  handiworky 
and  of  religious  feelings." 

Mr.  Bo  wen  claims  for  Froebel  the  fatherhood  of  all 
rational  manual  training,  and  he  is  clearly  right  in  doing 
so.  He  says:  "  We  distinctly  assert  that  manual  train- 
ing, and  in  particular  Sloyd,  which  have  been  making 
such  marked  progress  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  of 
late,  are  direct  and  undeniahle  outcomes  of  FroebeVs  views, 
and  that,  unless  they  are  dealt  with  on  Froebelian  prin- 
ciples, they  are  certain  to  be  little  letter  than  a  waste  of 
time."  The  founder  of  Sloyd  explicitly  states  that  he 
received  his  idea  of  the  introduction  of  handwork  chiefly 
from  Froebel.  Indeed,  he  was  led  to  prepare  his  Sloyd 
work  as  a  continuation  of  Froebel's  kindergarten  work, 
so  that  pupils  could  continue  their  handwork  after  they 
passed  the  kindergarten  age. 

Froebel's  marvellous  insight  and  his  great  logical 
power  can  be  realized  in  no  better  way  than  by  tracing 


256 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


the  devious  paths  and  laboriousefforts  of  his  successors  in 
climbing  slowly  to  the  heights  from  which  he  saw  the 
clear  light  of  truth  in  regard  to  soul  growth  through 
self-expression  by  material  things.  The  name  "  manual 
training,"  like  the  term  "  object  lesson,"  has  been 
narrowing.  It  has  directed  attention  to  the  external 
instead  of  the  inner  development,  to  the  production  of 
things  more  than  to  the  production  of  character.  His 
successors  caught  the  form  of  his  thought  without  its 
life.  In  nearly  every  essential  they  have  climbed  pain- 
fully backward,  instead  of  leaping  upward  with  their 
faces  toward  the  light. 

Through  the  wilderness  of  "  trade  schools  "  educa- 
tors gradually  reached  the  higher  ground  of  hand  train- 
ing without  special  association  with  any  particular  trade, 
but  as  a  qualification  for  better  work  in  any  field  of  in- 
dustrial life.  Here  they  groped  for  a  generation,  and 
here  the  great  body  of  those  who  have  climbed  at  all  still 
remain  looking  down  instead  of  up. 

During  the  last  few  years  the  most  advanced  leaders 
ha\?  seen  and  taught  that  the  true  basis  on  which  the 
intioduction  of  manual  training  into  schools  should  rest 
is  educational,  and  not  economic  or  utilitarian.  Froebel 
saw  and  taught  this  long  ago,  and  his  exemplification 
of  this  principle  in  the  use  of  material  in  the  kinder- 
garten has  done  more  than  all  other  agencies  to  help 
others  to  see  clearly  what  he  saw. 

Few  have  yet  been  able  to  follow  Froebel  to  the 
mountain  top  from  which  he  saw  in  manual  training, 
in  the  constructive  and  transforming  use  of  inaterial, 
the  revelation  cf  the  complete  inner  life  of  the  child 
and  the  basis  of  its  moral  training.    To  Froebel  we  owe 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.    257 


T] 


our  limited  conception  of  the  educational  value  of  man- 
ual training,  to  him  we  shall  owe  our  greater  enli^^hten- 
ment  when  in  the  coming  days  we  shall  see  beyond  the 
mists  and  shadows,  and  understand  that  the  proper  use 
of  objects  or  material  things  not  only  reveals  new  knowl- 
edge, widens  and  strengthens  our  faculties,  develops  and 
co-ordinates  our  brain  power,  and  cultivates  our  execu- 
tive force,  but  that  it  is  the  operative  foundation  of  spir- 
itual evolution. 

Educators,  especially  in  England  and  America,  began 
as  far  as  possible  from  Froebel's  position  in  the  part  of 
the  school  curriculum  to  which  they  assigned  manual 
training.  Froebel  gave  manual  training  in  many  adapted 
forms  to  the  little  children;  his  successors  began  by  giv- 
ing it  to  the  oldest  pupils  in  the  high  schools.  Here, 
again,  the  development,  where  any  has  taken  place,  is 
slowly  but  progressively  toward  Froebel.  Grade  by 
grade  downward  manual  training  is  forcing  its  way. 
In  time  men  will  see  what  Froebel  saw  so  clearly  long 
ago,  tliat  the  developing  influence  of  the  use  of  material 
in  productive  self-activity  is  greatest  in  the  early  years 
of  the  child's  evolution,  and  that  if  not  begun  then  it 
can  never  by  any  possibility  produce  its  best  effects. 
Like  all  other  education  wliose  germs  have  not  been  de- 
veloped in  the  first  evolutionary  stage,  its  later  develop- 
ment is  correspondingly  weak  and  formal.  The  kinder- 
garten will  in  time  become  the  universal  basis  for  man- 
ual training,  because  it  uses  handwork  as  a  means  of 
head  and  heart  growth,  and  at  the  period  in  the  child's 
life  when  it  is  most  developing. 

FroebeFs  objective  work  differs  radically  from  Pes- 
talozzi's,  and  from  that  of  all  Pestalozzi's  followers  in  the 


r 


258 


PBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


m 


hi'ki 


way  in  which  the  child  is  required  to  express  what  it  has 
learned  from  the  objects  used.  Pestalozzi's  children 
expressed  their  new  ideas  in  words  only.  They  gained 
ideas  from  objects  and  expressed  them  in  words.  Froe- 
bel  used  the  object  both  to  reveal  and  express  new  con- 
ceptions. Most  teachers  yet  limit  the  use  of  objects  to 
the  in-taking  of  knowledge;  their  most  developing  use 
is  in  the  out-giving  of  ideas.  This  best  use  of  objects 
we  owe  to  Froebel.  Froebel  was  not  satisfied  with  a 
revelation  of  the  law  of  objective  representation  of  ideas 
by  constructive  self-activity.  He  selected,  constructed, 
and  classified  material  of  various  kinds,  and  gave  it  to 
the  child  in  the  forms  and  quantities  best  adapted  to 
dofine  and  express  its  ideas.  To  do  this  cost  him  years 
of  careful  study  of  childhood  and  its  processes  of  self- 
revelation.  Again,  he  showed  his  most  distinctive  char- 
acteristic of  "  translating  psychological  principles  into 
psychological  practice." 

Froebel  himself  expressed  in  the  following  brief 
statement  the  great  purposes  for  which  he  used  material 
in  his  educational  system:  "  The  time  has  now  come  to 
exalt  all  work  into  free  activity — that  is,  to  make  it  in- 
telligent action.  This  can  only  take  place  when  the  law, 
according  to  which  all  formative  activity  proceeds,  is 
recognised  and  consciously  applied,  as  it  has  been  hither- 
to unconsciously  applied.  The  occupation  material  of 
my  method  gives  the  means  of  unconscious  application 
of  the  law  on  the  children's  part  to  rise  to  art  in  such 
a  way  as  to  come  to  their  consciousness  by  degrees  and 
be  recognised  as  the  guide  and  regulator  of  all  forma- 
tion. In  no  other  way  can  human  work  be  transformed 
into  free  activity.    It  can  only  become  intellectual  action 


1^ 


OBJECTIVE  TEACHING  AND  MANUAL  TRAINING.    259 

out  of  what  has  been  mere  mechanical  action  when  the 
occupation  of  the  hand  is  at  the  same  time  the  occupa- 
tion of  tlie  mind.  At  the  present  time  art  alone  can 
truly  be  called  free  activity,  but  every  human  work 
corresponds  more  or  less  with  creative  activity,  and  this 
is  necessary  in  order  to  make  man  the  image  of  his  Divine 
Creator— a  creator  on  his  own  part  in  miniature." 

These  sentences  will  bear  careful  rereading  once  a 
month. 


1 


MNi 


.•  f-..:-  .It   K  .  « .. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


EVOLUTION. 


?»• 


141  V 

If    /( 


Haying  written  largely  in  regard  to  evolution  in 
previous  chapters,  especially  in  Chapters  I  and  III,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  do  more  than  quote  Froebers  own  words 
to  unfold  his  conception  of  evolution.  Like  all  basal 
laws,  it  is  interwoven  with  all  other  truth,  and  has  neces- 
sarily been  kept  in  view  when  considering  his  other  laws. 
The  following  quotations  show  what  an  inspiring  and 
illuminating  influence  the  law  of  evolution  had  in  Froe- 
beFs  life.  It  is  an  essential  feature  in  his  philosophy  as 
the  only  possible  foundation  for  progressive  advance- 
ment in  the  individual  and  in  the  race.  It  is  the  true 
source  of  hope  to  the  teacher,  as  it  gives  a  logical  basis 
for  belief  in  man's  intellectual  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment. 

''  Man,  humanity  in  man,  as  an  external  manifesta- 
tion, should  be  looked  upon  not  as  perfectly  developed, 
not  as  flxed  and  stationary,  but  as  steadily  and  pro- 
gressively growing,  in  a  state  of  ever-living  development, 
ever  ascending  from  one  s^age  of  culture  to  another 
toward  its  aim  which  partake.:,  of  the  infinite  and  eter- 
nal." 

**  It  it  unspeakably  pernicious  to  look  upon  the  dc 

260 


EVOLUTION. 


261 


velopment  of  humanity  as  stationary  and  completed, 
and  to  see  in  its  present  phases  simply  repetitions  and 
greater  generalization  of  itself.  For  the  child,  as  well 
as  every  successive  generation,  becomes  thereby  exclu* 
sively  imitative,  an  external  dead  copy — as  it  were,  a 
cast  of  the  preceding  one — and  not  a  living  ideal  for  its 
stage  of  development  which  it  had  attained  in  human 
development  considered  as  a  whole,  to  serve  future  gen- 
erations in  all  time  to  come.  Indeed,  each  successive 
generation,  and  each  successive  individual  hvman  being, 
inasmuch  as  he  would  understand  the  past  and  present, 
must  pass  through  all  preceding  phases  of  human  de- 
velopment and  culture,  and  this  should  not  be  done  in 
the  way  of  dead  imitation  or  mere  copying,  hut  in  the 
way  of  living,  spontaneous  self -activity.*' 

"  (iod  neither  ingrafts  nor  inoculates.  He  develops 
the  most  trivial  and  imperfect  things  in  continuously 
ascoiuling  series  and  in  accordance  with  external,  self- 
grounded,  and  self-developing  laws." 

"  In  general,  whatever  of  human  education  and  de- 
velopment has  been  neglected  in  boyhood  will  never  be 
r<'irieved." 

"  Every  phase  of  development,  however  beautiful  and 
proper  in  its  place,  must  vanish  and  perish  whenever  a 
higher  phase  is  to  appear.  The  sheltering  bud  scales 
must  fall  when  the  young  branch  or  the  fragrant  blos- 
som is  to  unfold,  howevor  much  these  tender  forms  may 
thereby  he  exposed  to  the  rough  weather  of  the  spring. 
The  fragrant  blossom  must  make  room  for  a  fruit,  at 
first  sour,  hard,  and  homely.  The  luscious  red-cheeked 
fruit  must  decay  that  vigorous  young  plants  and  treea 
may  sprout  forth." 


t  'A 


/*  ■ 


%^ 


262 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWa 


**  One's  own  perceptions  awaken  one's  own  concep- 
tions, and  these  awaken  one's  own  thinking  in  later 
stages  of  development.  Let  us  have  no  precocity,  but 
natural — that  is,  consecutivo — organic  development." 

"  The  laws  of  the  universe  are  the  same  as  the  laws 
of  human  education.  Kindergartens  form  a  stage  of 
development  in  the  culture  of  man  out  of  which  the  suc- 
ceeding stages  will  follow  according  to  a  determined 
law,  as  is  the  case  in  organic  life." 

"  Every  new  stage  of  human  development  which 
occurs  in  its  own  time  as  surely  as  the  time  itself  comes, 
and  like  the  time  brings  in  cyclical  consequence  its  own 
peculiarities,  increases  the  capacity  for  the  understand- 
ing of  truth,  and  thus  broadens  the  knowledge  of  God." 

"  Humanity,  looked  at  externally,  is  not  seen  to  be 
an  already  perfected  thing,  not  an  absolutely  established, 
lasting  thing,  but  a  continually  progressive,  growing 
thing,  rising  from  one  stage  of  culture  to  another,  strid- 
ing toward  the  goal  that  touches  upon  infinity." 

Christ  said,  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life, 
and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.^*  Froebel, 
since  Christ,  is  the  greatest  revealer  of  the  ideal  of  **  more 
abundant  life."  He  saw  the  ascending  stages  in  God's 
created  works,  from  inorganic  matter,  through  organ- 
ized life  in  Nature,  to  man  and  to  the  centre  of  the  or- 
ganic whole,  God  himself.  He  noted  the  progressive 
sequence  of  related  stages  in  the  growth  of  plant  life, 
animal  life,  and  man.  He  saw  the  similarity  between 
•ndividual  man  and  humanity  in  gradually  unfolding 
development.  He  believed  that  new  revelations  are 
made  to  the  race  and  to  individuals  when  they  are  made 
ready  for  the  new  revelation  by  having  consciously 


EVOLUTION. 


263 


lived  up  to  the  revelations  already  made.  He  looked 
for  a  continuously  progressive  ascent  of  the  human  race 
from  one  higher  stage  of  culture  to  a  still  higher,  limit- 
ing the  highest  only  by  "  the  goal  that  touches  upon 
infinity."  The  duty  of  all  men,  especially  of  teachers,  is 
to  help  the  race  to  leap  from  stage  to  stage  in  its  evolu- 
tion toward  the  light. 

The  history  of  the  race  proves  the  possibility  of  up- 
ward development.  The  world  moves  on  to  a  higher 
ground,  and  as  it  moves  the  light  grows  brighter  and 
sight  grows  clearer.  Old  beliefs  and  theories  and  con- 
ventionalities fall  away  into  the  valley  of  errors.  Each 
generation  marvels  ?d  the  darkness  of  the  one  that  pre- 
ceded it.  Each  man  regrets  his  father's  benighted  con- 
dition, and  is  in  turn  pitied  by  his  son.  As  men  become 
more  free  they  rise  to  higher  stages  more  rapidly.  There 
is  no  department  of  life-work  in  which  there  are  fixed 
conditions.  Scientists,  doctors,  teachers,  statesmen, 
even  the  theologians,  grow  beyond  their  shells,  and  build 
each  year  "  more  stately  mansions  "  for  their  souls,  leav- 
ing "  the  past  year's  dwelling  for  the  new." 

To  every  man  and  woman  Froebel  said,  what  Holmes 
said  so  exquisitely  after  him: 

Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past  I 
Lot  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 
Till  thou  at  length  art  free. 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea. 

What  inspiration  and  hope  the  idea  of  evolution 
brings  to  the  teacher!  He  is  no  longer  a  hearer  of  les- 
sons, a  teacher  of  words,  or  even  a  developer  of  power. 
He  is  a  stimulator  and  helper  of  life  to  higher  life.    Mid- 


264 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


I 


I 


'  ,  vl 


i> 


dcndorff  said:  ''To  tend  human  germs  in  a  constantly 
progressive  manner  in  every  new  stage  of  human  devel- 
opment is  certainly  no  mean  calling,  hut  the  greatest 
and  most  important  for  every  generation."  Every  teach- 
er may  climh  where  others  never  climbed.  For  the  sake 
of  humanity  and  for  our  own  growth  we  should  climb 
along  new  paths  lighting  beacon  fires  as  we  go  up.  The 
best  thing  we  can  do  for  another  soul  is  to  start  it  to 
climb  for  itself. 

The  rainbow  rests  on  the  crest  of  the  mountain  yon- 
der. The  pot  of  gold  lies  where  the  rainbow  touches 
the  hilltop.  What  though  the  glorious  bow  moves  on  to 
crown  a  higher  peak  as  we  ascend?  There  is  joy  in  the 
fact  that  there  is  always  another  hill  to  climb  with  a 
new  pot  of  gold  at  the  toj). 

The  Baroness  von  Marenholz-Rulow,  in  replying  to 
the  insinuation  that  Froebel's  principles  wore  in  har- 
mony with  those  of  the  revolutionary  party  in  (iermany, 
said:  "  The  motto  of  the  revolution  is  overthrow,  while 
Froebers  motto  is  development — development  of  men  and 
things." 

Evolution  is  now  one  of  the  central  ideals  of  educa- 
tion. We  owe  it  largely  to  Froebel.  Dr.  Harris  says: 
"  Inner  connection  is,  in  fact,  the  law  of  development, 
the  principle  of  evolution,  and  Froobel  is  the  educational 
reformer  who  has  done  more  than  all  the  rest  to  make  valid 
in  education  what  the  Germans  call  the  'developing 
method.' " 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


PROEBEL's  ethical  PRIKCIPLB8. 


Character  building  is  the  supreme  aim  o!  Froebcrt 
educational  system.  His  principles  of  moral  and  reli- 
gious culture  are  therefore  worthy  of  careful  study. 

He  applied  precisely  the  same  laws  to  the  revelation 
of  ideals  of  right,  justice,  duty,  and  will  that  he  applied 
in  the  general  development  of  the  child.  The  law  of 
evolution  led  him  to  believe  thct  the  development  of 
moral  and  religious  ideals  must  be  a  progressive  growth 
adapted  to  the  expanding  stages  of  the  child's  life.  He 
never  made  the  child  a  formalist  or  a  hypocrite  by 
forcing  on  it  a  mature  theology  or  the  conduct  of  an 
adult.  The  law  of  evolution  revealed  to  him  also  the 
necessity  for  implanting  in  early  years  the  formative  ele- 
ments of  moral  and  religious  life,  and  gave  the  inspir- 
ing conception  of  progressive  growth  to  higher  life.  His 
law  of  unity  prevented  his  making  the  blunder  of  dis- 
sociating the  highest  life  of  man  from  his  common  every- 
day experience.  In  this  way  he  dignified  work  and 
made  religion  practical.  His  recognition  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  individuality  made  him  expect  a  distinct  moral 
and  religious  evolution  for  each  individual.    His  law  of 

community  taught  duty,  helpfulnese,  and  co-operation. 

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266 


FKOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


The  law  of  apperception  led  him  to  see  the  impossibility 
of  giving  a  religious  training  at  all,  unless  the  germs  of 
religious  feeling  and  thought  were  implanted  in  the 
child's  life. 

He  believed  the  three  foundation  elements  in  a  reli- 
gious life  to  be  community,  love,  and  life.  The  child's 
earliest  feelings  of  community  and  love  he  would  have 
developed  in  the  loving  family  life,  and  its  unconscious 
basis  for  the  conscious  revelation  of  active,  progressive, 
evolving  life  he  would  lead  it  to  gain  from  sympathetic 
contemplation  of  Nature. 

Speaking  of  the  family,  he  says:  "This  feeling  of 
community,  first  uniting  the  child  with  mother,  father, 
brothers,  and  sisters,  and  resting  on  a  higher  spiritual 
unity,  to  which  later  on  is  added  the  unmistakable  dis- 
covery that  father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters,  human 
beings  in  general,  feel  and  know  themselves  to  be  in 
community  and  unity  with  a  higher  principle — ^with 
humanity,  with  God — this  feeling  of  community  is  the 
very  first  germ  of  all  true  religious  spirit,  of  all  genuine 
yearning  for  unhindered  unification  with  the  eternal, 
with  God." 

"Inasmuch  as  every  separating  tendency  hinders 
pure  human  development,  man,  even  in  childhood,  re- 
fers everything  to  family  life,  beholds  everything 
through  family  life,  as  is  shown  so  clearly  in  child- 
hood." 

"  Pure  human,  parental,  and  filial  relations  are  the 
key,  the  first  condition,  of  that  heavenly,  Divine,  father- 
ly, and  filial  relation  and  life  of  a  genuine  Christian  life 
in  thought  and  action." 

"  The  comprehension  of  the  purely  spiritual  human 


PROBBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


267 


relations,  of  the  trae  parental  and  filial  relations,  fur- 
nishes the  only  key  for  the  recognition  and  apprehension 
of  the  relations  of  God  to  man  and  of  man  to  God." 

"As  long  as  mothers  do  not  know  how  to  admin- 
ister the  priestly  office  at  home  for  their  children's  bene- 
fit, so  long  will  their  piety  suffer." 

One  of  his  great  purposes  was  the  ennoblement  of 
family  life.  He  desired  to  make  it  pure,  true,  loving, 
that  it  might  fix  in  the  child's  nature  types  of  purity, 
truth,  and  love,  and  become  to  it  an  emblematic  repre- 
sentation of  perfect  society  and  of  the  relationship  of 
humanity  to  God.  He  valued  the  life  of  the  home  far 
more  than  any  moral  or  religious  teachings  of  the  home, 
although  he  did  not  u~derestimate  these  provided  they 
were  wisely  given  and  were  suitable  to  the  child's  stage 
of  development. 

As  he  made  family  life  the  source  of  true  religious 
feeling,  he  made  Nature  the  book  in  which  the  child  in 
^•^^^y  years  can  find  its  clearest  thoughts  of  God,  and  re- 
ceive into  its  mind  the  apperceptive  germs  to  which  may 
be  related  the  most  vital  elements  of  religious  thought. 
He  speaks  often  and  strongly  on  this  question.  He  ob- 
jected vigorously  to  the  deadening  practice  of  attempt- 
ing to  reveal  spiritual  truth  or  any  other  truth  to  a  mind 
in  which  there  are  no  related  centres  established  by  ex- 
perience. The  following  thoughts  are  types  of  many 
others  found  in  his  writings: 

"  We  have  to  open  the  eyes  of  our  children,  that  they 
may  learn  to  know  the  Creator  in  his  creations.  Only 
when  they  have  found  or  divined  God  as  the  Creator 
through  visible  things  will  they  learn  to  understand  the 
'Word  of  God' — God  in  spirit  and  in  truth — ^and  be 


<"! 


'M 


1i 


f; 


f 


m 


268 


FBOEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


able  to  beqome  Christians.  First  is  the  visible  world, 
then  the  invisible  truth — the  idea." 

"  The  capacity  for  belief  or  sense  of  truth  is  killed 
out  in  the  childish  heart  when  the  truth  is  presented  to 
it  only  in  the  form  of  abstract  language." 

"  By  pointing  out  God's  works  while  rambling 
through  the  scenes  of  Nature  a  thousand  opportunities 
offer  for  worship/' 

The  contemplation  of  Nature's  processes  should  r«- 
veal  God  to  the  child  as  Creator,  and  this  is  the  iSrst 
step  toward  true  knowledge  of  his  being.  It  also  reveals 
the  element  of  life  and  of  developing  life,  and  from  these 
the  child  learns  to  recognise  the  possibility  of  human 
evolution.  By  its  nurture  of  the  life  in  Nature  it  learns 
its  power  to  improve  life,  and  by  sowing  the  seeds  of 
plants  it  realizes  that  it  may  aid  in  the  increase  of  life. 
These  thoughts,  when  their  time  of  fruitage  in  charac- 
ter arrives,  enable  the  child  to  realize  that  it  has  power 
to  help  all  life  to  higher,  better,  purer,  truer  life.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  energizing  thoughts  that  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  true  religious  life.  ^ 

The  germination  of  a  seed,  the  growth  of  a  plant, 
the  unfolding  of  a  bud,  the  blooming  of  a  flower,  the 
structure  of  a  leaf,  the  song  of  a  bird,  the  love  and  mys- 
teries of  a  bird's  nest,  the  home-making  of  an  insect,  the 
evolution  of  a  worm  into  a  butterfly,  the  rippling  of  a 
brook,  the  vastness  of  the  ocean,  the  majesty  of  a  moun- 
tain, the  movement  of  trees  in  the  wind — ^all  these  Froe- 
bel  uses  to  quicken  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of 
the  child.  It  must  not  be  understood  that  Froebel  ex- 
pected the  child  to  be  made  conscious  of  God  by  its  life 
amid  the  mysteries  of  Nature  during  its  unconscious 


-WT 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


269 


e  world, 

is  killed 
iented  to 

'ambling 
rtunities 

Lould  ra- 
the first 

0  reveals 
om  these 
t  human 
it  learns 
seeds  of 
e  of  life. 

1  charac- 
as  power 
fe.  This 
ie  at  the 

a  plant, 
iwer,  the 
md  mys- 
isect,  the 
ling  of  a 
a  moun- 
Bse  Froe- 
Eil  life  of 
jebel  ex- 
y  its  life 
lonscious 


stage  of  development.  This  he  would  deplore.  The 
revelation  of  life  as  the  unifjring  and  evolving  power  in 
Nature  was  his  aim.  He  believed  that  by  the  recogni- 
tion of  life  in  Nature  and  by  performing  all  its  work  in 
the  kindergarten  in  a  logical,  progressive,  evolving  se- 
quence, the  ideals  of  life  and  law  would  definitely  unfold 
in  the  child's  consciousness,  and  ultimately  reveal  God 
not  only  as  the  source  of  life  and  law,  but  as  life  and  law, 
the  all-pervading  elements  that  give  unity  and  progres- 
sive evolution  to  the  universe.  "  Knowledge  of  God, 
like  all  knowledge,  enters  the  human  mind  by  degrees 
from  the  first  presentiment  up  to  faith,  and  then  on  to 
sight,  till  the  spirit  comes  up  into  highest  unity  or  con- 
sciousness of  God." 

Nature  is  the  most  sacred  temple  for  the  child.  In 
it  the  child  gives  its  truest  worship,  unconsciously  over- 
flowing with  adoration  and  receiving  into  its  life  silent 
streams  of  reverence  and  elements  of  vital  truth  direct 
from  the  centre  of  life  to  strengthen  its  soul  as  naturally 
as  the  trees  and  flowers  around  it  are  nourished  by  the 
material  elements  that  give  them  life  and  growth.  What 
life-revealing  and  life-stimulating  sermons  are  preached 
to  it  by  the  seed,  the  plant,  the  bud,  the  flower,  and  the 
worm  in  their  evolution  toward  a  new  life!  What 
hymns  are  sung  to  it  by  cricket  and  bee  and  bird  I  What 
revelations  of  joy  and  peace  and  majesty  and  glory  enter 
its  spiritual  life  as  it  lies  on  a  June  day  looking  beyond 
the  floating  clouds,  and  dimly  conscious  of  the  melody 
and  mystery  of  life  I 

From  the  lips  of  an  enraptured  worshipper,  who  was 
five  years  old,  and  into  whose  life  flowed  comfort  and  joy 
wid  elation  from  the  myriad  sights  and  sounds  of  Na- 


il 


270 


FROBBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


lli      lil 


ture  till  her  heart  overflowed,  came  with  reverent  sweet- 
ness the  words,  "  Thank  you,  God."  Her  religious  life 
was  developing  from  within.  It  had  no  formalism,  or 
any  other  element  of  death.  It  was  the  spontaneous  ex- 
pression of  real  feeling,  and  not  a  mere  ceremonial.  She 
felt  a  faith  she  never  could  have  learned  by  words. 

Froebel  aimed  to  make  mothers  and  teachers  wise 
enough  to  train  childhood  so  that  its  spiritual  evolution 
might  never  be  arrested.  Only  a  few  great  souls  carry 
over  into  their  conscious  life  the  undimmed  insight,  the 
untiring  alertness,  and  the  ever-increasing  assimilating 
power  of  their  spiritual  natures  in  unconscious  child- 
hood. The  best  growth  of  humanity  must  be  forever 
retarded  so  long  as  its  highest  power  is  dwarfed  by  weak 
or  false  training. 

The  loving  contemplation  of  Nature  prepares  the 
child  for  the  recognition  of  the  underlying  universal 
law  of  unity,  and  ultimately  for  man's  greatest  revela- 
tion— that  he  is  himself  subject  to  this  same  law,  and 
responsible  for  bringing  himself  into  harmony  with  it, 
that  he  may  reach  his  best  development  as  an  individual, 
and  become  fully  qualified  for  the  fulfilment  of  his 
highest  destiny,  and  do  his  part  nobly  in  applying  this 
law  in  the  universal  community  of  which  he  is  an  essen- 
tial part. 

Many  scientists  have  made  science  a  basis  for  unbe- 
lief. Froebel  made  it  an  essential  part  of  the  basis  of 
true  religion,  a  revealer  of  God;  the  only  true  revealer 
to  the  child  of  life,  reverence  for  life,  evolution  in  life, 
and  therefore  of  the  conception  of  the  possibility  of 
higher  human  life  and  of  human  power  to  aid  all  human 
life  to  higher  life.  \ 


■wr 


I. 


PROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


271 


rent  sweet- 
jligious  life 
'malism,  or 
fcaneous  ex- 
onial.  She 
words, 
ichers  wise 
1  evolution 
souls  carry 
nsight,  the 
ssimilating 
ious  child- 
be  forever 
3d  by  weak 

epares  the 
',  universal 
est  revela- 
3  law,  and 
ly  with  it, 
individual, 
jnt  of  his 
)lying  this 
3  an  essen- 

for  unbe- 
e  basis  of 
e  revealer 
on  in  life, 
sibility  of 
all  human 


The  Baroness  von  Marenholz-Biilow  said,  in  con- 
versation with  Middendorff:  "  In  our  time  men  seem  to 
have  forgotten  Nature  in  favour  of  spirit,  and  objects 
in  favour  of  abstractions;  the  word  is  separated  from 
the  thing  and  governs,  and  generally,  only  as  a  mere 
empty  word,  is  not  understood.  It  is  quite  clear  to  me 
that  Froebers  method  and  doctrine  will  reverse  this 
process,  and  first  connect  facts  with  the  outer  and  inner 
experience  as  their  root  and  their  cause.  Thus  only  can 
the  spirit  of  truth,  which  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  again  be 
recognised  as  one  and  the  same  in  Nature  and  in  the 
mind.  Froebel's  idea  of  education  strives  to  bring  to  the 
full  consciousness  of  men  their  relations  to  Nature  (the 
Divine  nature),  and  thereby  must  the  relation  of  men 
to  God  (in  the  Spirit)  and  to  all  that  is  divine,  as  Chris- 
tianity teaches,  be  lifted  to  higher  and  clearer  recogni- 
tion. One  side  of  truth  verifies  and  explains  the  other 
side."  Middendorff  replied:  "  You  are  right.  One  truth 
must  ever  confirm  another;  the  recognised  truth  will 
be  more  clearly  and  deeply  understood  through  every 
new  one  discovered.  The  spirit  of  Christianity,  so  very 
much  misunderstood  and  mistaken  at  present,  will 
awaken  to  new  life  in  children,  and  appear  in  a  new  and 
higher  light,  when  Froebel's  idea  of  education  has  been 
practically  applied.    This  is  my  deepest  conviction." 

Froebel  believed  "that  we  may  restrain  the  sins 
which  spring  from  the  animal  appetite  when  we  direct 
the  regards  of  the-  child  to  something  that  satisfies  his 
higher  ideal  or  spiritual  wants."  These  higher  spiritual 
powers  are  a  part  of  the  child's  nature  at  birth,  and  they 
need  to  be  nourished  in  order  that  they  may  grow.  As 
the  body  grows  by  receiving  proper  nutrition,  so  the 


1  'l' 


U 


If 


■m 


lU        *  k 


272 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


spiritual  nature  develops  if  it  is  satisfied;  as  the  body 
dies  from  lack  of  proper  nourishment,  so  does  the  spir- 
itual nature  lose  its  vital  energy  unless  supplied  with 
the  elements  of  spiritual  interest.  "  The  spiritual  un- 
consciousness into  which  the  child  is  bom  is  changing 
into  conscious  being  from  the  first  moment  of  life.  The 
incentives  which  are  needed  for  the  awakening  of  the 
powers  of  the  soul  go  out  from  the  external  world.  .  .  . 
The  senses  are  to  be  awakened  as  the  organs  of  the  mind, 
and  not  as  the  organs  of  mere  sensuous  pleasure  or  of 
mere  desires,  as  in  the  animals." 

This  was  one  of  Froebel's  great  thoughts  for  the 
training  of  humanity.  He  saw  that  the  misuse  of  the 
very  elements  of  character  that  should  make  men  pure 
and  noble  led  to  their  degradation  and  debasement,  and 
that  thousands  even  of  Christian  parents  prayed  for  the 
salvation  of  their  children  while  they  allowed  them  to 
plant  in  their  natures  the  seeds  of  moral  death.  The 
senses  are  agents  of  the  soul,  and  should  never  become 
the  slaves  of  the  body.  When  they  do,  sensuality  takes 
the  place  of  spiritual  wisdom.  When  men  and  women 
learn  to  train  their  children  properly  the  words  of  Solo- 
mon will  be  understood  and  believed  by  Christians, 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he 
is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  Many  mothers  de- 
prave their  children  by  giving  them  improper  food;  by 
giving  their  food  too  often,  or  in  too  large  quantities; 
or  by  creating  an  unnatural  taste  for  sweetmeats.  This 
lays  the  foundation  of  self-indulgence,  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  appetites  that  should  never  have  been  formed. 
Froebel  saw  even  more  clearly  than  Buskin  that  "all 
evil  springs  from  unused  (or  misused)  good,"  and  he 


FBOEBEL'S  BTHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


273 


I  the  body 
s  the  spir- 
plied  with 
[ritual  un- 
changing 
Hfe.  The 
ng  of  the 
orld.  .  .  . 
the  mind, 
sure  or  of 

ts  for  the 
use  of  the 
men  pure 
ment,  and 
ed  for  the 
i  them  to 
ath.  The 
3r  become 
ility  takes 
id  women 
s  of  Solo- 
yhristians, 
i  when  he 
others  de- 
food;  by 
uantities; 
its.  This 
gratifica- 
formed. 
that  ''all 
"  and  he 


yearned  to  make  parents  and  teachers  wise  in  the  train- 
ing of  the  child,  so  that  no  good  of  body,  mind,  or  spirit 
should  be  unused  or  misused.  Froebel's  expression  of 
this  thought  is  much  more  comprehensive  than  Ruskin's: 
"  A  suppressed  or  perverted  good  quality — a  good  tend- 
ency, only  repressed,  misunderstood,  or  misguided — lies 
originally  at  the  bottom  of  every  shortcoming  in  man." 

The  same  elements  in  our  nature  form  in  our  lives 
either  love  or  hate,  calmness  or  passion,  truth  or  false- 
hood, courage  or  cowardice,  constructiveness  or  destruc- 
tiveness,  temperance  or  self-gratification,  self-control  or 
self-indulgence,  selfishness  or  unselfishness,  strengthen- 
ing self-consciousness  or  weakening  self-consciousness, 
purity  or  debasement.  How  supremely  important  it  is, 
therefore,  that  humanity  should  study  the  child  as  Froe- 
bel  did,  to  find  how  all  the  beautiful  and  the  wonderful 
in  Nature  may  be  made  to  stimulate  the  good  and  not 
the  evil  in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  child! 

By  keeping  the  child  from  its  earliest  years  in  an 
atmosphere  of  purity,  joyousness,  and  self-activity,  sur- 
rounded with  the  beautiful  in  Nature,  colour,  form, 
music,  and  symbolic  story,  Froebel  believed  it  possible 
to  so  strengthen  the  good  in  the  child's  intellectual  and 
spiritual  nature  that  it  would  continue  to  grow  and  re- 
main a  controlling  ethical  force  through  life.  The  spir- 
itual nature  -may  be  trained  to  be  receptive  to  all  pure 
and  ennobling  influences,  and  if  these  influences  when 
received  into  the  child's  life  are  not  merely  allowed  to 
accumulate,  but  are  wrought  into  character  by  the  cre- 
ative self-activity  of  the  child,  they  do  a  great  deal  to 
eradicate  coarseness  and  immorality  from  its  nature. 

He  did  not  accept  the  theory  of  the  total  depravity 


;■  (:■ 


< 


LIS      I 


274 


FBOBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


of  the  child,  but  taught  that  every  child  has  in  its  nature 
elements  of  divinity  that  when  properly  developed  con- 
stitute the  true  unity  between  humanity  and  God.  He 
believed  man  to  be  the  highest  created  being,  and  he 
refused  to  believe  that  all  his  tendencies  are  by  nature 
toward  evil.  He  saw  in  the  child  elements  of  Divine  love 
and  power  which  educational  forces  should  keep  in  per- 
fect, productive,  creative  unity  with  divinity.  He  be- 
lieved that  man  was  created  in  harmony  with  universal 
unity,  and  that  the  elements  of  his  own  nature  were 
originally  harmonious.  He  knew  that  evil,  the  misuse 
of  good,  had  partially  destroyed  this  beautiful  harmony, 
and  he  believed  that  the  highest  function  of  education  is 
to  restore  this  lost  harmony. 

The  doctrine  of  total  depravity  he  regarded  as  para- 
lyzing to  all  human  effort  for  self-evolution.  There  is 
little  hope  or  inspiration  in  the  work  of  a  teacher  who 
believes  that  he  is  teaching  beings  who  are  totally  de- 
praved, in  whom  there  are  no  elements  of  purity  and 
wisdom  and  progressive  growth;  but  there  is  a  sacred  joy 
to  him  in  the  consciousness  that  each  child  possesses  cre- 
ative force  and  other  elements  of  divinity,  the  love  of 
that  which  is  inherently  beautiful,  a  capacity  for  love, 
ennobling  aspirations,  a  mind  that  may  grasp  the  prob- 
lems of  the  infinite,  and  a  spirit  that  should  respond  to 
its  Creator.  The  teacher  who  holds  this  view  of  child- 
hood believes  that  he  is  moulding  creative  forces,  and  is 
in  the  best  sense  a  coworker  with  the  Creator  himself. 

Froebel  wrote  very  strongly  against  the  theory  of 
total  depravity.  He  said:  "Whoever  considers  that 
which  is  finite,  material,  physical,  as  in  itself  bad,  there- 
by expresses  contempt  for  creation,  Nature,  as  such — 


I 


\^-w^ 


s. 

in  its  nature 
ireloped  con- 
tdGod.  He 
ling,  and  he 
•e  by  nature 
:  Divine  love 
keep  in  per- 
ity.  He  be- 
ith  universal 
nature  were 
,  the  misuse 
Eul  harmony, 
education  is 

rded  as  para- 
m.    There  is 
teacher  who 
e  totally  de- 
>f  purity  and 
s  a  sacred  joy 
possesses  ere- 
',  the  love  of 
city  for  love, 
asp  the  prob- 
Id  respond  to 
dew  of  child- 
forces,  and  is 
itor  himself. 
;he  theory  of 
onsiders  that 
jlf  bad,  there- 
re,  as  such — 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


276 


nay,  he  actually  blasphemes  God.  It  is  treason  to  human 
nature  and  to  man  to  consider  him  in  his  essence  as 
neither  good  nor  bad  or  evil;  how  much  more,  then,  is 
it  treason  to  consider  him  in  his  nature  as  essentially 
bad  or  evil! " 

The  progress  of  mankind  religiously  has  been  de- 
layed by  the  lack  of  true  self-reverence.  Froebel  was 
the  apostle  of  higher  self-recognition.  His  loving  faith 
in  the  development  of  the  good  in  humanity  has  revo- 
lutionized the  teaching  and  disciplinary  processes  of 
progressive  educators,  but  its  best  work  will  be  done 
when  it  reveals  to  all  men  their  native  divinity,  and 
makes  education  and  life-work  a  conscious  growth 
toward  the  Divine.  True  humility  does  not  spring  from 
a  consciousness  of  weakness  and  depravity,  but  from 
the  consciousness  of  power  which  reveals  responsibility 
and  relationships,  and  helps  man  to  realize  that  he  is 
but  one  of  a  mighty  host  of  workers  for  truth.  There 
is  little  development  in  any  religion  that  gives  to  its 
believers  the  enfeebling  conception  that  they  are  merely 
"unworthy  worms."  No  man  can  have  true  faith  in 
God  who  has  not  true  faith  in  himself. 

Froebel  strongly  objected  to  the  defining  of  evil  in 
the  mind  of  the  young  child  as  an  element  in  its  own 
character.  To  do  this  necessarily  degrades  the  child's 
moral  sense.  "It  is  certainly  a  very  great  truth,"  he 
says,  "  and  failure  to  appreciate  it  does  daily  great  harm, 
that  it  generally  is  some  other  human  being,  not  infre- 
quently the  educator  himself,  that  first  makes  the  child 
or  the  boy  bad.  This  is  accomplished  by  attributing 
evil — or  at  least  wrong — motives  to  all  that  the  cliild 

does  from  ignorance,  precipitation,  or  even  from  a  keen 
19 


li'ii 


il 


i    \ 


■'■'  I! 


S7« 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


and  praiseworthy  Bense  of  right  or  wrong.  Unfortu- 
nately, there  are  still  such  men  of  mischiet  among  edu- 
cators. To  them  children  and  boys  are  little  malicious, 
spiteful,  lurking  sprites,  where  others  see  at  most  a  jest 
carried  too  far,  or  the  effect  of  too  free  an  exercise  of 
spirit.  Such  birds  of  ill  omen,  especially  v/hen  they  are 
educators,  are  the  first  to  bring  guilt  upon  such  a  child 
who,  though  not  wholly  innocent,  is  yet  without  guilt; 
for  they  give  him  motives  and  incentives  which  were  as 
yet  unknown  to  him." 

Evil  should  not  be  defined  in  the  consciousness  and 
will  of  the  child  as  a  personal  motive  in  its  life.  In  this 
way  consciousness  of  innocence  is  destroyed;  and  the 
positive  character  is  paralyzed.  Positivity  is  the  central 
element  in  character.  Knowing  the  will  of  God  by  doing 
it,  and  acting  the  defined  will  for  humanity — this  is  the 
Christian  life  that  meets  the  Divine  approval.  Froebel 
ridicules  the  religious  training  that  first  makes  a  boy 
believe  himself  bad,  then  coerces  and  restricts  and  dwarfs 
him  into  external  submissiveness,  and,  finally,  like  the 
boy  who  has  maltreated  a  fly  and  torn  off  its  wings  and 
feet,  says,  "  See  how  tame! " 

Children  love  to  do  good  better  than  evil.  Christians 
must  believe  this  or  they  believe  that  God's  highest 
created  beings  prefer  evil  to  good.  Such  a  belief  pre- 
vents the  conception  of  the  ideal  of  progressive  advance- 
ment from  stage  to  stage  by  humanity  and  individual 
man.  The  parent  or  teacher  should  provide  facilities 
for  the  child's  productive  occupation.  If  this  is  done 
the  destructive  tendency  will  gradually  vanish  from  its 
character.  The  mother  or  teacher  should  guide  to  a 
change  in  the  centre  of  interest  when  the  child  is  tend* 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


277 


^ 


Jnfortu- 
mg  edu- 
lalicious, 
ist  a  jest 
ercise  of 
they  are 
1  a  child 
ut  guilt; 
I  were  as 

mess  and 

In  this 

and  the 

le  central 

by  doing 

his  is  the 

Froebel 

:es  a  boy 

ad  dwarfs 

like  the 

^ings  and 

Ihristians 

i  highest 

lelief  pre- 

advance- 

ndividual 

facilities 
s  is  done 

from  its 
aide  to  a 
d  is  tend- 


ing toward  the  wrong.  The  great  dangers  in  the  ethical 
training  of  children  are  the  weakening  of  self-reverence 
in  the  immature  consciousness  and  the  consequent  lack 
of  positiveness  or  independent  aggressiveness  for  truth. 

The  great  body  of  Christians  are  negative.  They 
need  independent  vitality.  They  wait  for  leadership. 
They  depend  on  external  stimulation,  and  work  with 
spasmodic  energy  when  electrified  by  the  fervid  enthusi- 
asm of  others.  The  greatest  lessons  taught  to  the  world 
by  Christ  are  individual  power  and  individual  responsi- 
bility. The  teaching  of  the  theologians  has  so  far  failed 
utterly  to  reveal  to  men  a  due  sense  of  the  divine  power 
they  possess,  and  which  they  should  cherish  and  develop 
above  all  else.  It  is  true  that  it  has  given  to  some  men 
a  sense  of  responsibility,  but  it  is  a  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  evil  and  not  the  good  in  their  natures.  The  great 
work  of  the  Church  should  be  to  convince  man  of  hia 
power  to  aid  in  the  overthrow  of  evil  and  the  accom- 
plishment of  good.  This  is  the  true  basis  of  responsibil- 
ity. The  teaching  that  makes  a  man  feel  responsibility 
only  for  his  sins  is  a  blighting  misrepresentation  of 
Christ's  most  vital  revelations. 

Froebel  longed  to  have  the  school,  the  home,  and  the 
Church  work  in  perfect  harmony  in  the  development 
of  the  child.  He  aimed  to  make  it  positive,  not  negative; 
self-reverent,  not  self-abased.  He  would  as  long  as  pos- 
sible prevent  its  recognition  of  evil  in  its  own  nature  by 
directing  its  attention  to  its  powers  to  achieve  good  and 
providing  appropriate  means  for  their  exercise.  The  de- 
fining of  the  consciousness  of  evil  must  weaken  charac- 
ter, the  gradual  defining  of  individual  good  by  creative 
self-activity  in  executing  unselfish  purposes  develops 


ii 
1 1 1 


'  V 


278 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


m 


I ' 


true  character  force,  and  helps  to  make  the  divinity  in 
the  cliild  the  dominant  element  in  its  nature. 

Froebel  pleaded  that  the  child  might  be  free  from 
the  terrorism  of  religious  teaching.  Speaking  of  his  own 
experience,  he  says,  "  Great  was  my  joy  when  I  believed 
I  had  proved  completely  to  my  own  satisfaction  that  I 
was  not  destined  to  go  to  hell."  He  was  a  most  earnest 
Christian,  but  he  wished  to  save  the  child  from  the 
"stony,  oppressive  dogmas  of  theology."  He  believed 
that  the  seeds  of  character  require  the  sunshine  of  joy- 
ousness  for  their  early  germination  and  development, 
as  the  seeds  of  plants  need  the  warmth  and  light  of  the 
sun;  and  that  as  plants  grown  in  a  cellar  are  feeble  and 
delicate,  so  characters  developed  in  gloom  and  fear  lack 
vitality,  strength,  and  positivity.  He  recognised  a  wide 
difference  between  the  darkness  of  difficulty  and  the 
shadow  of  dread.  Difficulties  are  opportunities  for  vic- 
tory; dread  palsies  power.  No  life — physical,  intellec- 
tual, or  spiritual — is  true  life  unless  its  highest  charac- 
teristic is  power.  The  religious  or  ethical  training  that 
by  terrorism  or  in  any  other  way  weakens  power,  pre- 
vents the  growth  of  divinity  in  humanity,  and  retards 
the  progress  of  humanity  toward  the  Divine. 

He  criticised  severely  the  practice  of  associating 
gloom  and  sadness  with  religion  and  severity  and  pun- 
ishment with  God  in  the  mind  of  the  child.  It  is  a  de- 
plorable thing  to  misrepresent  God  to  a  child;  yet  it 
has  been  customary  for  parents  and  even  teachers  to 
speak  of  God  to  children  as  a  kind  of  malicious  spirit 
who  dislikes  bad  children  so  thoroughly  that  he  is  con- 
tinually on  the  lookout  for  opportunities  to  punish  them. 
They  represent  the  loving  Father  as  a  spy  ever  on  the 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


279 


Dity  in 

e  from 
lis  own 
►elieved 

that  I 
earnest 
om  the 
)elieved 

of  joy- 
3pment, 
t  of  the 
jble  and 
ear  lack 
I  a  wide 
and  the 

for  vie- 
intellec- 
;  charac- 
iing  that 
ver,  pre^ 
I  retards 

sociating 
md  pnn- 
t  is  a  de- 
d;  yet  it 
achers  to 
3U8  spirit 
le  is  con- 
ish  them, 
er  on  the 


alert  to  wreak  vengeance  on  what  they  are  pleased  to 
call  "naughty  children."  Froebel  led  the  child  to  see 
God  as  love,  life,  and  the  centre  of  all  unifying  and  up- 
lifting power. 

Gloom  is  unnatural  in  a  child's  life,  and  it  is  a  fatal 
mistake  to  give  it  the  impression  that  religious  life,  the 
expression  of  its  highest  nature  in  adoration  and  action, 
should  have  in  it  any  element  of  melancholy  or  dread. 
The  unity  of  Divinity  with  the  divinity  in  man  should 
bring  to  the  awakening  consciouaness  its  highest  happi- 
ness. Even  the  child's  social  and  creative  plays  should 
be  truly  reverent  worship  to  it.  In  all  departments  of  its 
unfolding  life  happiness  is  a  preventive  of  evil  and  a 
stimulus  to  good.  The  puritanical  idea  that  associated 
joyousness  and  art  and  music  with  evil  was  a  perversion 
of  truth  that  blighted  true  religious  culture.  Froebel 
was  one  of  the  first  to  protest  against  it  on  philosophic- 
ally religious  grounds.  The  shadows  of  religious  gloom 
are  lifting,  and  the  brightness  of  religious  life  will  soon 
shine  full  and  clear.  There  are  few  Christians  now  who 
would  sympathize  with  the  Scotchman  who,  after  visit- 
ing Edinburgh  on  Sunday,  said,  "  It  was  an  awful  sight 
to  see  the  people  so  happy  on  the  Lord's  day." 

Froebel  objected  as  definitely  to  the  attempts  to  make 
children  love  good  by  bribing  them  as  he  did  to  attempts 
to  make  them  hate  evil  by  terrorizing  them.  He  had 
little  faith  in  the  piety  either  of  child  or  man  that  rested 
on  promises  of  rewards  either  in  the  present  or  the  fu- 
ture. "  It  argues  a  low  degree  of  insight  into  the  nature 
and  dignity  of  man  if  the  incentive  of  reward  in  a  future 
world  is  needed  in  order  to  insure  a  conduct  worthy 
<rf  his  nature  and  destiny."    He  believed  that,  if  the 


I:i 


i  1 


1  • 


^i 


if 

11 J 


I  r 


fii, 

i 


i! 


W-M- 


m  i 


4!'l 


ill! 


ill  i! 


P'  HI 


280 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


child  has  not  been  warped  in  its  earliest  development 
by  allowing  its  powers  to  define  evil  instead  of  good  in 
its  nature,  through  failure  to  provide  appropriate  con- 
ditions for  its  best  spiritual  growth,  it  will  need  no  prom- 
ise of  reward  to  lead  it  to  do  right,  because,  if  properly 
trained,  it  will  enjoy  doing  right  better  than  wrong. 
He  knew,  too,  that  children  who  are  led  to  do  right  by 
promises  of  reward  are  forming  the  habit  of  doing  when 
bribed,  and  not  the  habit  of  doing  right.  They  will  do 
wrong  as  readily  as  right  for  bribes  in  manhood  if  their 
moral  development  is  arrested  by  the  substitution  of 
rewards  instead  of  the  enjoyment  and  duty  of  doing 
right,  as  the  motive  to  action. 

It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose,  as  so  many  do,  that  if  chil- 
dren can  be  led  to  do  right  by  coercion  or  by  hope  of 
reward,  they  are  forming  the  habit  of  right-doing.  It 
is  the  motive  and  not  the  action  that  becomes  habitual 
by  repetition  in  moral  training.  The  habit  that  is  formed 
by  promising  rewards  to  children  is  the  habit  of  bribe- 
taking. Such  training  makes  it  impossible  to  develop 
the  sense  of  duty  and  responsibility  as  the  basis  for  right 
action.  It  will  help  educators  to  avoid  many  mistakes 
if  they  remember  that  the  originating  power  is  more  im- 
portant than  the  operative  power  in  the  formation  of 
moral  habits.  Moral  habits  are  the  result  of  moral 
actions.  It  is  undoubtedly  as  true  in  ethical  training 
as  in  any  other  department  of  training  that  "practice 
makes  perfect,"  or  that  repeated  action  defines  power; 
but  it  must  never  be  forgotten  in  any  department  of 
training  that  it  is  self-ncivriiy  and  not  mere  activity  that 
is  truly  developing.  The  selfhood  is  the  originating 
power,  and  the  formation  of  moral  habits  must  produce 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


281 


)pment 
rood  in 
te  con- 
)  prom- 
roperly 
wrong, 
ight  by 
g  when 
will  do 
if  their 
tion  of 
I  doing 

if  chil- 
hope  of 
ing.  It 
labitual 

formed 
f  bribe- 
develop 
or  right 
nistakes 
lore  im- 
ition  of 
I  moral 
training 
practice 

power; 
nent  of 
ity  that 
^nating 
produce 


a  change  in  the  selfhood.  The  change  wrought  by  prom- 
ising rewards  or  by  coercion  is  weakening.  In  the  first 
case  it  is  degrading;  in  the  second,  it  is  paralyzing.  All 
external  incentives  to  duty  weaken  the  child's  inner 
self-active  motive  power,  and  thus  prevent  its  highest 
ethical  development. 

Froebel  objected  in  all  training  to  dogmatic  teach- 
ing beyond  the  child's  experience.  The  effects  of  such 
teaching  in  ethical  training  are  even  more  disastrous 
than  in  any  other  department  of  training.  Vital  inter- 
est dies  when  moral  and  religious  theories  are  given  in 
words  before  apperceptive  centres  adapted  to  the  child's 
stage  of  development  have  been  formed  by  experience. 
The  gnwth  must  be  from  the  inner  to  the  outer  life. 
There  must  be  some  experience  to  give  life  and  meaning 
to  the  words,  or  they  remain  dead  and  meaningless. 
Confusion  results  when  a  child  is  led  to  believe  that  its 
moral  and  religious  nature  is  being  developed  by  mem- 
orizing statements  of  theological  dogma.  Many  Chris- 
tian people  only  believe  they  believe.  "  If  a  man  is  to 
understand  religious  truth,  he  must  be  made  to  experi- 
ence much.  He  must  rise  gradually  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truths  of  Christianity."  Froebel  did  not  believe  it 
possible  to  teach  temperance,  or  citizenship,  or  virtue, 
or  religion  from  books  alone,  but  held  that  a  good 
character  is  developed  by  good  living.  Good  habits 
and  loving  service  are  better  than  any  formal  ethical 
training.  Form  and  life  must  be  in  harmony.  Un- 
less dogmatic  creeds  are  illustrated  by  true  lives  in 
those  by  whom  the  child's  daily  life  is  surrounded, 
there  is  great  danger  that  the  creeds  will  be  discarded 
because  misunderstood,  and  that  with  the  creed?  will 


ii  I 


282 


PROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


ii  II 


n 


rvni  :ili 


m 


if  1 M 


be  swept  away  the  child's  desire  for  a  higher  spiritual 
life. 

Froebel  protested  against  all  efforts  to  force  on  a 
child  the  practice  or  creed  of  adults  in  religious  'ife  or 
profession.  He  objected  to  formal  religious  exercises 
in  schools  unless  they  are  adapted  to  the  child's  stage  of 
development.  He  desired  that  every  human  being 
should  have  his  religious  feelings  developed  and  applied 
in  childhood.  His  ideal  of  the  perfect  training  of  a  child 
was  to  bring  it  under  "  the  influence  of  Nature,  useful 
handiwork,  and  religious  feelings"  but  he  dreaded  noth- 
ing more  than  that  the  child  should  become  a  formalist 
or  a  hypocrite.  It  usually  becomes  both  if  adult  religion 
is  forced  on  it  prematurely;  and  formalism  and  hypoc- 
risy are  the  most  effective  agents  in  destroying  the  divin- 
ity in  humanity  and  in  robbing  men  of  true  motives. 
George  McDonald  describes  the  process  of  religious 
training  too  often  adopted  as  an  attempt  to  "sand- 
paper a  child  into  a  saint."  Eeligious  life  must  be  the 
result  of  the  out-working  of  the  good  feeling  and  thought 
of  the  child's  inner  life. 

The  child  may  be  dwarfed  religiously  either  by  los- 
ing the  proper  religious  culture  of  the  emotions  and  the 
senses  adapted  to  the  earliest  stage  in  its  religious  evolu- 
tion, or  by  compelling  it  to  assume  in  childhood  the  re- 
ligious life  of  a  later  stage  of  its  development. 

In  his  kindergarten  and  in  his  directions  for  mothers 
he  tried  to  guide  the  kindergartner  or  mother  to  lead 
the  child  by  her  enlightened  love  through  the  circum- 
stances and  conditions  that  define  and  strengthen  the 
principles  of  sound  morality  by  calling  them  into  prac- 
tice, and  giv?  it  such  experi?BC^§  m  will  lead  to  the 


ill 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


283 


spiritual 

rce  on  a 
18  ^*fe  or 
exercises 

stage  of 
n  being 
1  applied 
)f  a  child 
e,  useful 
led  noth- 
formalist 
k  religion 
d  hypoc- 
he  divin- 

motives. 
religious 
"  sand- 
3t  be  the 

thought 

r  by  los- 
and  the 
lis  evolu- 
d  the  re- 
mothers 
•  to  lead 
circum- 
then  the 
ito  prac- 
d  to  the 


natural  unfolding  of  its  religious  character,  and  lay 
the  foundation  for  a  clear,  strong,  true,  and  ever- 
developing  spiritual  nature.  "  The  boy's  life,"  he  says, 
•■'  should  be  a  prayer  of  Jesus  expressed  in  conduct  and 
in  deeds." 

Froebel  believed  in  a  thoroughly  practical  religion. 
He  did  not  undervalue  spirituality,  but  he  saw  that  re- 
ligion was  too  often  mere  sentiment,  a  temporary  awak- 
ening of  feeling.  He  placed  s.  very  high  value  on  spir- 
ituality, and  he  therefore  desired  to  weave  pure  feeling 
and  thought  into  character  by  the  child's  active  use  of 
them  in  its  daily  life. 

He  demanded  works,  not  only  to  show  faith  but  to  in- 
crease faith.  He  saw  the  folly  of  training  a  race  to  be- 
lieve, or  rather  to  believe  they  believe,  without  doing 
good  deeds  in  accordance  with  their  most  enlightened 
beliefs.  "  Religion  is  union  with  God,  and  man  can  be 
united  with  God  only  by  seeing,  believing,  and  acting 
with  God,  and  not  by  any  one  of  these  things  alone." 
Herbart  taught  that  instruction  is  the  chief  element  in 
the  formation  of  character.  This  Froebel  did  not  be- 
lieve. He  substituted  creative  doing  of  the  right  for  in- 
struction. Instruction  is  needed;  but  neither  feeling 
nor  instructed  thought  becomes  a  part  of  a  child's  na- 
ture truly  till  it  is  applied  by  the  child  in  executing  a 
good  impulse  or  plan  of  its  own.  Froebel  taught  that 
"  the  worship  of  God  is  only  one-sided,  is  only  a  tem- 
porary social  edification,  which  deserves  not  the  name  of 
worship  if  it  proves  fruitless  for  the  inward  and  out- 
ward life  of  man."  His  all-enlightening  law  of  unity 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  divorce  the  spiritual 
from  the  practical    Beligious  feelings  and  thoughts 


284 


FROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


hvvi: 


ila* 


ii 


I    I 


fade  out  of  life  unless  they  are  made  a  part  of  life. 
"  Eeligion  is  not  an  emotion  or  a  dogma,  but  a  serv- 


f» 


ice. 

In  all  Froebel's  teaching,  as  well  as  in  his  organized 
system  of  education,  he  guided  the  child's  work  so  that 
its  chief  joy  should  be  found  in  rendering  service  to 
others  who  needed  it.  He  knew  that  the  child  might 
be  made  intensely  selfish  by  making  it  conscious  of  its 
own  individual  power  without  at  the  same  time  training 
it  to  use  its  powers  for  others  whom  it  can  aid  to  greater 
happiness.  He  gave  childhood  full  opportunity  to  learn 
by  experience  that  it  is  "  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive  " — ^a  truth  no  one  ever  understood  if  he  had  to 
lecifn  it  by  words  alone.  The  child  in  the  kindergarten 
produces  gifts  for  mother,  father,  grandparents,  sisters, 
or  brothers.  They  are  the  results  of  its  creative  and  con- 
structive power,  expressions  of  its  inner  life,  and,  if  they 
are  received  with  joyous  appreciation,  the  child  is  truly 
blest  by  immediate  happiness  and  by  unselfish  charac- 
ter development.  Froebel  taught  that  the  true  Christ- 
mas tree  for  the  child  is  the  tree  on  which  hang  gifts 
made  by  the  child  for  others.  Too  often  children  are 
made  selfish  at  the  time  when  of  all  the  days  in  the  year 
they  should  be  trained  to  understand  the  joy  of  giving. 
Giving  to  others  the  results  of  its  own  labour  foreshad- 
ows the  nobler  duty  of  self-sacrifice  for  others  who  sor- 
row— a  virtue  that  Froebel  aimed  to  implant  in  every 
heart  as  a  golden  link  to  bind  the  brotherhood  of 
man. 

He  had  little  respect  for  any  religion  that  made  the 
saving  of  his  own  soul  the  supreme  end  of  a  man's  reli- 
gious life.    He  aimed  to  make  men  free,  that  they  might 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


285 


of  life, 
a  serv- 

'ganized 

so  that 
rvice  to 
might 
IS  of  its 
training 
>  greater 
to  learn 

than  to 
s  had  to 
ergarten 
sisters, 
and  con- 

,  if  they 
L  is  truly 
I  charac- 
e  Christ- 
ang  gifts 
dren  are 

the  year 
if  giving, 
foreshad- 
who  sor- 

in  every 
rhood  of 

made  the 
lan's  reli- 
ley  might 


develop  their  selfhood  or  their  inner  divinity  to  its 
highest  limit,  hut  with  freedom  he  always  associates  re- 
sponsihility. 

Each  individual  should  recognise  two  dominant 
duties:  First,  to  hring  himself  into  harmony  with  uni- 
versal law,  that  his  own  evolution  may  he  complete;  sec- 
ond, to  hecome  an  essential  part  of  the  interdependent 
organic  unity  of  humanity.  The  recognition  of  indi- 
viduality alone  may  make  men  selfish,  and  therefore  es- 
sentially evil;  the  training  of  individual  power  in  order 
to  hecome  a  stronger  element  in  the  universal  brother- 
hood makes  a  man  at  once  humble,  self-reverent,  unsel- 
fish, and  creatively  co-operative. 

The  Church,  by  directing  the  man's  attention  too 
exclusively  to  the  salvation  of  his  own  soul,  was  using 
the  highest  external  moulding  agency  to  make  him  self- 
ish, and  to  make  atomism  or  separatism  or  unrelated 
individualism  the  supreme  law  of  humanity.  Froebel 
took  direct  issue  with  the  Church,  and  claimed  that  it 
grievously  misrepresented  Christ's  teaching.  He  saw 
in  Christ's  revelation  to  man  more  than  all  else  the  true 
conception  of  an  interdependent  humanity  whose  inner 
connection  is  the  Divine  element  in  its  nature,  and  whose 
destiny  is  complete  unity  with  God.  To  make  this  unity 
between  humanity  and  God  perfect  each  individual  in 
humanity  must  establish  the  unity  between  himself  and 
God.  This  Froebel  made  his  highest  privilege,  because 
thereby  he  was  doing  his  most  perfect  work  for  humanity 
and  God.  Perfect  happiness  is  only  possible  when  man 
is  performing  up  to  his  fullest  power  the  best  he  is  now 
capable  of  as  a  step  toward  the  fulfilment  of  his  highest 
destiny.   To  guide  him  in  doing  this  through  life  is  the 


ft 

11 


i 


^i 


p 
h 


liu 


Nil 


iii 


J. 

fi;' 
[p. 

% 


f    i 


I 


286 


PROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


work  of  religion.  To  fit  him  for  it  is  the  aim  of  ethical 
training. 

Man's  highest  destiny,  according  to  Froebel,  is  unity 
with  God.  He  says:  "  Religion  is  the  endeavour  to  raise 
into  clear  knowledge  the  feeling  that  originally  the  spir- 
itual self  of  man  is  one  with  God,  to  realize  the  unity 
with  God  which  is  founded  on  this  clear  knowledge,  and 
to  continue  to  live  in  this  unity  with  God,  serene  and 
strong,  in  every  condition  and  relation  of  life."  To  make 
this  unity  possible  is  the  all-pervading,  all-inclusive  aim 
of  his  educational  system.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
child's  evolution  in  the  home,  the  kindergarten,  and  the 
primary  school,  he  would  implant  the  germs  of  unity 
with  God  by  leading  it  to  recognise  the  element  of  life 
in  Nature  as  the  basis  of  its  later  recognition  of  God  as 
the  source  of  life  and  as  the  life  itself.  In  the  higher 
departments  of  the  public  schools  the  phenomena  of 
Nature  should  reveal  the  laws  as  well  as  the  life  of  God, 
and  in  the  college  and  university  he  would  make  the 
conception  of  unity  conscious,  and  develop  it  as  the 
broad  foundation  on  which  to  rest  all  efforts  for  the 
amelioration  of  evil  and  the  development  of  good.  He 
would  make  a  radical  change  in  the  work  of  colleges  and 
universities  by  making  it  chiefly  constructive  instead  of 
cumulative,  so  that  all  the  learning  and  training  of  the 
previous  stages  of  educational  growth  might  be  co-ordi- 
nated and  wrought  into  uplifting,  life-impelling  forces. 
All  the  training  of  sensations  and  emotions,  and  all  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge,  is  preparatory  to  the  develop- 
ment of  an  enlightened,  a  strong,  and  a  persistent  will 
to  make  man  a  self -active  power  for  good. 

The  conception  of  perfect  unity  between  individual 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


287 


of  ethical 

a,  is  unity 
ur  to  raise 
y  the  spir- 
^the  unity 
ledge,  and 
ierene  and 
To  make 
lusive  aim 
ges  of  the 
n,  and  the 
s  of  unity 
ent  of  life 

of  God  as 
the  higher 
lomena  of 
ife  of  God, 

make  the 

it  as  the 
rts  for  the 
good.  He 
oUeges  and 

instead  of 
ling  of  the 
be  co-ordi- 
ing  forces, 
and  all  the 
le  develop- 
sistent  will 

iodiyidual 


man  and  God  is  but  the  basis  on  which  rests  the  greater 
unity  between  God  and  humanity.  The  wider  ideal  is 
the  source  of  progressive  religious  growth,  according  to 
Froebel's  general  principle,  that  the  all-inclusive  ideal 
in  every  department  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  devel- 
opment is  most  productive  of  active,  persistent  interest 
and  of  creative  self-activity,  and  therefore  of  true 
growth.  He  says:  "  Unless  man  ascends  from  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  fatherhood  of  God  in  his  own  life  to  a 
knowledge  of  his  fatherhood  in  the  life  of  man- 
kind, future  religious  instmction  will  be  empty  and 
barren." 

Froebel  taught  the  importance  of  revealing  to  con- 
scious youth  the  superiority  of  the  internal  when  com- 
pared with  the  external,  and  the  fallacy  of  resting  happi- 
ness on  the  variable  conditions  of  outer  life,  instead  of 
finding  its  chief  joy  in  "inner  freedom,  serenity,  and 
contentment."  By  the  true  culture  of  man's  spiritual 
nature  he  hoped  to  ennoble  him  so  that  he  would  be- 
come free  from  the  aggravating  restrictions  of  material 
conditions,  and  use  even  difficulties  and  disappointments 
as  elements  in  his  spiritual  evolution.  "  Renunciation," 
he  says,  "  the  abandonment  of  the  external  for  the  sake 
of  securing  the  internal,  is  the  condition  for  attaining 
highest  development." 

Humanity  has  been  dwarfed  by  servility  to  material- 
ism. To  remedy  this  one-sided  Christians  have  attempted 
to  elevate  man  by  a  too  exclusive  spirituality.  Froebel 
aimed  to  preserve  the  proper  relationship  between  the 
two.  He  made  the  spiritual  the  dominant  force  to  utilize 
material  things  for  high  purposes,  and  thereby  hoped 
ultimately  to  free  man  from  the  slavery  of  lower  desires. 


288 


PROEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


1*;'  :■ 


rv 


n  \ 


How  the  race  would  leap  toward  the  light  if  it  had 
learned  to  subordinate  the  external  to  the  internal! 

Froebel  aimed  to  ennoble  work — ^to  make  it  the 
achievement  of  creative  power,  the  accomplishment  of 
duty,  and  the  expression  of  the  divinity  in  man.  Work 
that  degenerates  into  drudgery  is  a  dreadful  perversion 
of  high  powers.  The  power  to  work  enables  men  to 
prove  their  love  by  deeds,  and  makes  a  man  worthy  of 
his  place  as  an  individual  in  the  unity  of  humanity. 
Work  is  a  source  of  development  to  man's  physical,  in- 
tellectual, and  spiritual  nature,  and  it  is  therefore  an 
important  element  in  ethical  culture.  It  gives  a  man 
executive  power,  and  religious  life  needs  the  character- 
istic of  achievement.  To  arouse  good  feelings  without 
action  in  response  to  their  promptings  is  certain  to 
weaken  a  child's  moral  force.  Froebel  believed  tliat  all 
men  should  be  workers,  and  that  working  together  they 
would  become  workers  with  God. 

Mr.  Bowen  has  described  Froebel's  religious  teach- 
ings as  "  the  pure,  simple  view  of  the  Gospels — brotherly 
kindness,  growing  up  into  love  of  God — living,  moving, 
and  having  its  being  in  the  practice  of  love.  It  is  a 
growing  into  union  with  humanity  and  with  God  by  a 
willing,  conscious  endeavour  to  live  out  on  earth  God's 
grand  purpose  in  humanity— a  purpose  which  more  than 
once  haB  been  made  to  seem  narrow  and  unattractive, 
but  which,  as  Froebel  expounds  it,  is  again  worthy  of 
man  and  of  man's  Creator."  "  This  growth,  too,"  he 
adds,  "  Froebel's  plan  is  well  fitted  to  produce." 

Froebel  believed  that  humanity  may  develop  pro- 
gressively toward  the  Divine  in  conformity  with  the  uni- 
versal law  of  evolution;  that  every  child  has  in  its  na* 


I 


FROEBEL'S  ETHICAL  PRINCIPLES. 


289 


if  it  had 
ernal! 
:e  it  the 
iment  of 
1.  Work 
erversion 
I  men  to 
worthy  of 
umanity. 
rsical,  in- 
refore  an 
38  a  man 
haracter- 
i  without 
ertain  to 
1  that  all 
ther  they 

lis  teach- 
brotherly 

moving. 
It  is  a 
3od  by  a 
•th  God's 
lore  than 
ttractive, 
rorthy  of 

too,"  he 

jlop  pro- 
i  the  uni- 
n  its  na- 


ture  an  element  of  divinity  which  should  be  fostered 
and  brought  into  conscious  unity  with  the  Divine;  that 
the  natural  tendency  of  childhood  is  toward  the  right 
if  supplied  with  right  conditions  for  the  growth  of  its 
best;  that  the  ideal  side  of  the  child's  nature  should  be 
developed  from  the  moment  the  baby  receives  its  first 
impressions  to  prevent  the  growth  of  the  sensual  in  its 
character;  that  training  should  begin  at  birth,  but  that 
it  never  should  interfere  with  the  child's  spontaneity; 
that  freedom  is  the  only  true  condition  of  perfect  growth; 
that  coercion  dwarfs  and  reward-giving  as  an  induce- 
meit  to  good  conduct  degrades;  that  positivity  or  spir- 
itual propulsion  is  an  important  element  in  character; 
that  ethical  culture  must  be  given  in  each  stage  of  de- 
velopment in  order  that  the  true  growth  of  succeeding 
stages  may  be  attained;  that  it  is  a  grave  error  to  attempt 
to  give  the  child  in  any  stage  of  its  development  ethical 
training  or  rules  of  conduct  belonging  rightfully  to  a 
later  stage;  that  the  first  germs  of  religious  growth  are 
found  in  community,  love,  reverence,  filial  and  fraternal 
relationships,  and  true  living  as  revealed  by  the  experi- 
ences of  pure  family  life;  that  Nature  is  the  child's  sym- 
bolic revealer  of  God  as  life  in  advancing  evolution  to 
higher  life;  that  the  evil  in  a  child's  action  results  from 
suppressed  or  misdirected  good;  that  religion  should 
not  be  associated  with  terrors  of  any  kind;  that  the 
child's  religious  experiences  should  be  joyous  and  happy; 
that  God  should  be  revealed  as  a  loving  father;  that 
the  child  should  not  be  made  conscious  of  evil  in  its 
own  motives  in  its  early  life;  that  the  child's  life  should 
be  kept  free  from  formalism  and  hypocrisy;  that  no  dog- 
matic theology  should  be  given  in  words  until  the  child 


mi 


•I 


ii:f  gi 


m 


II 


290 


FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


has  experienceB  that  can  give  life  and  meaning  to  the 
words;  that  the  child's  mind  should  not  be  filled  with 
meaningless  maxims,  mere  ashes  of  dead  virtues;  that 
selfhood  is  the  child's  divinity  and  its  development  the 
great  function  of  the  home  and  the  school;  that  self- 
hood should  be  made  complete  as  a  basis  for  the  perfect 
unity  with  God  and  humanity;  that  self-activity  is  the 
process  of  growth  morally  as  well  as  intellectually;  that 
right-doing  not  only  demonstrates  faith  but  increases  it; 
and  that  religion  can  not  be  communicated  to  or  taken 
into  the  life  of  man  as  a  completed  thing,  or  by  the  in- 
tellectual acceptance  of  opinions  or  doctrines,  but  that 
it  must  be  a  progressive  growth  in  feeling  and  thought  in 
which  community,  love,  life,  law,  reverence,  gratitude, 
joyousness,  renunciation,  unselfishness,  freedom,  and 
creative  activity  are  essential  elments. 

At  first,  theologians  feared  that  Froebel  was  unor- 
thodox, but  to-day  the  most  progressive  religious  leaders 
are  earnestly  advocating  the  vital  truths  he  taught.  His 
insight  into  the  inner  meaning  of  Christ's  teaching  wafl 
truly  remarkable.  The  religious  world  owes  him  a  deep 
debt  of  gratitude  for  many  interpretations  of  Christ's 
wonderful  lessons,  perhaps  for  none  more  than  for  the 
inspiring  revelation  that  Christ  came  not  alone  that  men 
might  have  life,  but  that  they  might  have  it  "more 
abundantly." 

When  Froebel's  ethical  teaching  has  wrought  its  per- 
fect work  in  the  homes,  the  schools,  and  the  churches, 
then  his  complete  ideal,  which  is  the  Gospel  ideal  in 
practice,  will  be  the  greatest  controlling  and  uplifting 
force  in  the  world. 


g  to  the 
led  with 
aes;  that 
ment  the 
:hat  self- 
le  perfect 
ity  is  the 
ally;  that 
jreases  it; 

or  taken 
)y  the  in- 

but  that 
hought  in 
gratitude, 
iom,   and 

was  unor- 
»us  leaders 
ight.  His 
iching  wafl 
dm  a  deep 
)f  Christ' a 
an  for  the 
e  that  men 
it  "  more 

^ht  its  per- 
;  churches, 
el  ideal  in 
d  uplifting 


INDEX. 


Anurohy  oausad  by  ooeroion,  171. 
Apperception,  918-231. 
Arithmetic,  AindAinental   error  in 

teaching,  56 ;  pupila  Bhoold  make 

problems  aa  well  aa  aolve  them, 

110. 
Arnold,  Dr.,  on   the   aim  of  the 

teaching  of  history,  111. 

Barop  on  object  teaching,  2S0. 

Blow,  Miss,  on  the  difference  be- 
tween the  atomism  of  Bousseau 
and  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel's  idea 
of  unity,  68 ;  on  unity  in  knowl- 
edge, 76. 

Botany,  teaching  too  early  destroys 
vital  interest  in  Kature,  57. 

f  {owen,  H.  Courthope,  similarity  of 
principles  of  Carlyle  and  Froebel, 
86 ;  Froebel  true  psychologist  of 
childhood,  86 ;  on  unity  or  inner 
connection,  62;  on  self-activity, 
108;  on  physical  development 
through  games,  128 ;  on  appercep- 
tion, 219;  on  manual  training, 
265 ;  on  religious  training,  288. 

Brain,  the,  aided  in  growth  by 
bodily  activity,  129, 188. 

Bribing  to  do  good,  fallacy  of,  280. 

Browning,  Mrs.,  on  reverence  for 
selfhood,  245. 


Balow,  Baroness  von,  on  FroebePa 
law  of  unity,  79 ;  on  the  law  of 
development,  864 ;  on  moral  train- 
ing, 871.         ^ 

Cerebral  growth  increased  by  self- 
activity,  98. 

Character  too  often  negative,  277. 

Child  study,  1. 

Child,  the,  more  important  than 
knoTvledge,  102. 

Child  development  before  school 
life,  105. 

Child  the  centre  of  correlation, 
209. 

Childhood,  rights  of,  should  be  sa- 
credly respected,  166. 

Children  love  U)  work,  167,  172; 
should  live  in  contact  with  Na- 
ture, 179-196;  should  cultivate 
plants,  186, 192. 

Coercion  dwarfs  power,  162, 173. 

Comenius,  motto  of,  68 ;  on  less 
work  by  teachers  and  more  by 
pupils.  114. 

Control  by  external  agencies  de- 
grades, 164. 

Control  and  spontaneity,  24,  154r- 
178. 

Co-ordination  of  neurological  sys- 
tem by  games,  188. 


SO 


201 


292 


FBOEBBL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


.1  ' 


3  1' 


Co-operation,  law  of,  16 ;  natural  to 
children,  SSY. 

Copying  headlines  weakens  indi- 
viduality, 287. 

Correlation  of  studies,  197-211 ;  lack 
of,  in  Pestaloszi's  work,  200. 

Country  and  city  life,  influence  of* 
on  education,  98. 

Creative  power  in  man,  107. 

Creative  productivity  the  true  ideal, 
118. 

Culture  epochs,  64. 

Depravity,  law  of  total,  rejected,  80, 
165,  274. 

Dewey,  Prof.,  on  self-activity,  104. 

Dickens,  Charles,  on  wrong  of  de- 
struction of  wonder  power,  110; 
on  neglect  of  physical  culture, 
160. 

Diesterweg  on  individual  ftvedom, 
242. 

Discipline,  164-178 ;  in  schools  revo- 
lutionited  by  Froebel,  177. 

Discovery  of  problems,  power  weak- 
ened in  school,  106. 

Drawing,  an  agency  in  self-expres- 
sion, 116 ;  in  connection  with  his- 
tory and  literature,  117 ;  and  the 
development  of  the  imagination, 
117 ;  child  should  choose  its  own 
departments  of,  and  subjects,  117 ; 
based  on  Nature  study,  206. 

Education  a  progressive  growth  to- 
ward the  divine,  64,  59 ;  miscon- 
ception regarding  its  true  mean- 
ing, 180. 

Emotional  nature,  early  tndning 
of,  8. 

Enrichment  of  school  courses  by 
Nature  study,  198. 

Environment  shovld  be  adapted  to 


the  child^s  stage  of  evolution, 
112. 

Ethical  principles  of  Froebel,  265- 
290. 

Evil  often  defined  in  the  child's 
mind  by  teachers,  275. 

Evolution  of  man  through  definite, 
related  stages,  11, 54, 58,  260-264. 

Excursions  to  fields  and  woods  im- 
portant, 190. 

Executive  power  should  be  devel- 
oped, 68,  91,  95. 

Experience,  ethical  teaching  must 
be  based  on,  281. 

Expression  does  not  lead  to  self-ex- 
pression, 286. 

Family  life  the  source  of  true  re- 
ligious feeling,  266. 

Flowers,  destruction  of,  may  lead 
to  libertinism,  191. 

Freedom  under  law,  158, 168. 

FroebePs  educational  principles 
compared  with  Pestalozzi^  37, 88, 
89;  educational  principles  com- 
pared with  Herbart's,  89-47. 

Froebel  always  reduced  principles 
to  practice,  123, 190. 

FroebePs  object  teaching,  249, 250 ; 
manual  training,  252 ;  philosophy 
comprehensive,  84 ;  own  views  on 
unity,  49;  own  views  on  self- 
activity,  97 ;  own  views  on  play, 
121 :  own  views  on  discipline,  155 ; 
own  views  on  Nature,  179;  own 
views  on  apperception,  215 ;  own 
views  on  individuality,  224 ;  own 
views  on  ethical  truning,  262. 

Geography  related  to  Nature  study 
207. 

Grammar,  error  in  teaching,  67 ;  re- 
lated to  Nature  study,  201.  \ 


: 


<Vi» 


INDBX. 


293 


Hailman,  Dr.,  Bimilarity  of  piinci- 
ples  of  Froebel  and  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, 35 ;  on  unity  or  inner  con- 
nection, 52  ;  on  self-activity,  86. 

Hall,  Stanley,  progress  of  Froebel's 
philosophy,  35 ;  Froebel's  idea  of 
feeling  now  dominates  psychol- 
ogy, 36 ;  Froebel's  view  of  God 
and  Nature,  36. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  on  Belf-ao- 
tivity,  103. 

Hamilton,  Dr.,  chest  development 
of  British  soldiers,  126. 

Harmony  in  training  essential,  6^ 
66, 131. 

Harris,  Dr.,  Froebel  chief  advocate 
of  law  of  development,  264 ;  Froe- 
bel and  the  education  of  feeling, 
36;  Froebel's  philosophy  the 
highest  for  woman,  86 ;  on  unity 
or  inner  connection,  52 ;  on  meth- 
ods of  discipline,  154 ;  influence 
of  kindergarten  on  arithmetic  and 
geometry,  207. 

Herbart'fl  educational  principles 
compared  with  Froebel's,  89-47. 

Hypocrisy,  danger  of  inducing,  in 
children,  282. 

Imagination  developed  by  contact 
with  Nature,  187. 

Individualism  and  socialism,  70,  80, 
102, 142,  226. 

Individuality  and  self-expression, 
14,  222-247. 

Indolence,  unnatural,  90. 

Inner  connection  or  unity,  8,  48-88. 

Insight  and  attainment,  92. 

Interest  weakened  by  substituting 
problem  solution  for  problem  dis- 
covery, 108. 

Interest  change  of  centre  from 
wrong  to   right,  172,  174;  sus- 


tained by  productive  self-activity, 
175;  developed  by  love  of  Na- 
ture, 189;  dwarfed  by  substitu- 
tion of  other's  interests  for  those 
of  the  child,  229. 

Internal  and  external,  relationship 
between,  287. 

Irving,  Henry,  on  self-expression, 
241. 

Jena,  Froebel's  educational  devel- 
opment at,  62. 

Kindergarten,  the,  made  play  cul- 
ture objective,  124 ;  the  best  type 
of  correlation,  197 ;  the,  founded 
to  form  apperceptive  centres  of 
feeling  and  thought  in  the  child, 
218;  proscribed  by  the  Prussian 
Government,  242. 

Language  correlated  with  Nature 
study,  201. 

Law  and  liberty  in  harmony,  158, 
168, 176. 

Liberty  of  choice  essential  in  self- 
expression,  119. 

Life,  reverence  for,  an  important 
element  in  moral  training,  191. 

Longfellow  on  the  symbolism  of 
flowers,  188. 

Manual  training,  intellectual  ad- 
vantages, 253 ;  moral  advantages, 
253 ;  as  self-expression,  254 ;  edu- 
cational not  economic,  22,  258; 
and  brain  making,  254 ;  and  the 
neurological  system,  254. 

Materialism  and  spirituality,  har- 
mony between,  287. 

Mathematics  related  to  Nature 
study,  204,  206 ;  •  correlative 
I      study,  209. 


Wl 


t< 


^"* 

1 

• 

294 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


Mary^B  Meadow  Sooietiea,  198. 
Mechanical  processes  of  developing 

expruBsion    weaken    self-expres- 
sion, 244. 
Mediation,  law  of,  78. 
Mlddendorff  on  moral  training,  271 ; 

on  children's  play,  147. 
Modelling  based  oei  l^ature  study, 

206. 
Moral  evolution  by  deliuite  related 

stages,  58;  etfects  of  play,  1S9; 

education  through  Mature,  179- 

196. 
Motor  and  sensor  nervous  systems 

co-ordinated  by  physical  culture, 

183. 
Motor  power   developed  by  play, 
'     184;  has  been  neglected,  134. 

Nascent  periods  of  educational 
growth,  54,  55,  64. 

Nature's  processes  reveal  inner  law, 
94. 

Nature  and  God,  71,  267,;  the  re- 
vealer  of  life,  evolution  and  God, 
18,  179-196  ;  and  moral  educa- 
tion, 179-196,  267 ;  the  correlat- 
ing study  in  Froebel's  work,  201- 
208. 

Negative  character  produced  by 
schools,  277- 

Neurological  entire  system  devel- 
oped by  bodily  action,  183. 

Nutrition  most  important  in  brain 
development,  129. 

Objects,  higher  use  by  Froebel  in 

teaching  number,  66,  207,  251. 
Objective    teaching    and    manual 

training,  248-259. 
Object  teaching  misunderstood  by 

English  and  American  teachers, 

80,248. 


Object  teaching  of  England  and 
America,  criticism  of,  76,  248 ;  by 
Pestalozzi,  249,  250,  258 ;  of  Froe- 
bel, 20,  249,  250,  258. 

Opposites,  law  of  harmony  be- 
tween, 73. 

Oral  expression  should  be  8elf-ex> 
pression,  238. 

Originative  power  more  important 
than  operative  power,  107. 

Over-pressure,  evil  effects  of,  129. 

Painting  based  on  Nature  study, 
206. 

Periods  of  educational  growth,  59, 
60. 

Pestalozzi's  general  educational 
principles  compared  witli  Froe- 
bel's,  37-39. 

Physical  culture,  formal,  like  all 
formal  teaching  not  the  end,  128 ; 
urgently  needed,  130 ;  should  be 
considered  in  granting  university 
degrees,  131. 

Play  the  perfect  type  of  self-activi- 
ty, 93 ;  as  an  educational  factor, 
23, 122-153;  must  not  be  robbed 
of  spontaneity,  125;  and  physical 
development,  126,  137, 142 ;  im- 
portance of  joyous  interest  in,  126 ; 
develops  the  whole  being,  127; 
most  effective  in  co-ordinating 
sensor  and  motor  systems,  134; 
great  developer  of  motor  power, 
136:  as  a  developer  of  moral 
power  and  character,  139;  de- 
velops selfhood,  147. 

Playgrounds,  recent  movement  in 
favor  of,  in  Germany,  148 ;  need 
of,  in  cities,  152. 

Problem  discovery  greater  than 
problem  solution,  106;  in  arith- 
metic, Euclid,  physics,  and  bot- 


i:' 


I 


INDEX. 


295 


^land  and 
6,  248 ;  by 
;  of  Froe- 

Qony    bo- 

>e  8elf-ex> 

important 

07. 

t  of,  129. 

ire  study, 

rowth,  59, 

lucational 
ith  Froe- 

,  like  all 

end,  128 ; 

should  be 

university 

elf-activi- 
ml  factor, 
36  robbed 
1  physical 
142 ;  im- 
!stin,126; 
3ing,  127; 
>rdinating 
ems,  134; 
»r  power, 
of  moral 
139;   de- 

ement  in 
L48 ;  need 

ter  than 
in  arlth- 
and  bot- 


i 


any,  110;  in  history,  geography, 
and  literature,  111. 
Programmes,  school,  should  not  be 
too  narrow,  243. 

Rein  on  the  true  centre  of  correla- 
tion, 211. 

Related  stages  cf  educational  evolu- 
tion, 54,  55. 

Religious  views  of  Froebel  so  ad- 
vanced that  at  first  he  was  called 
"unorthodox,"  86,  290;  training 
should  be  free  from  terrorism  and 
gloom,  278. 

Revelation  to  the  child  should  lead 
to  revelation  by  the  child,  116. 

Running  games,  advantages  of,  126, 
138. 

Schmidt,  Dr.  F.  A.,  on  benefits  of 
running  games,  126. 

Schools,  "  free  republics  of  child- 
hood," 158. 

Science  founded  on  Nature  study, 
204. 

Scientific  classification  in  botany, 
zoology,  etc.,  weakens  true  inter- 
est in  Nature,  57. 

Self-activity,  6,  84-120;  in  origina- 
tive power,  86, 120 ;  the  true  test 
of  teaching,  104;  free,  does  not 
mean  unrestricted  liberty,  113; 
foundation  of  true  correlation  of 
studies,  120 ;  productive,  surest 
source  of  interest,  176. 

Self-expression  versus  expression, 
114,  236 ;  two  stages  of,  115 ;  in 
play,  145;  oral,  not  sufliciently 
practised,  240. 

Self-education,  96. 

Self-reverence  a  leading  element  in 
ethical  training,  275. 

Sensations  and  emotion8,earIy  train- 
ing of,  8. 


Senses  should  be  awakened  of  or- 
gans of  mind,  not  as  mere  sensu- 
ous pleasures,  271. 

Sensuality  prevented  by  flower 
love,  192,  271. 

Sensor  and  motor  nervous  systems 
co-ordinated  by  physical  culture, 
133. 

Service  to  others  a  basal  element  in 
ethical  training,  284. 

Sloyd  based  on  Froebel's  work,  255. 

Socialism  and  individualism,  70,  80, 
102, 142,  226. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  the  evil  effects 
of  developing  one  department  of 
human  power  at  the  expense  of 
the  others,  65;  on  self-develop- 
ment, 103. 

Spirituality  promoted  by  true  ob- 
jective work,  252. 

Spontaneity,  24, 84, 154-178. 

Stages  of  evolution  in  the  individ- 
ual, 54,  55,  58;  evolutionary,  of 
educational  progress,  87. 

Study  alone  dwarfs  motor  power, 
135. 

Symbolism,  30. 

Tennyson  on  (Jod  in  Nature,  183. 
Terror    destructive    of    character 

power,  168,  278. 
Terrorism  and  gloom  should  not  be 

associated  with  religious  training, 

278. 
Trade  BchoolB  condemned,  256. 

Unity  or  inner  connection,  3,  48- 
83 ;  in  inctividual  growth,  54 ;  of 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spir- 
itual growth,  65-67;  of  feelinpr, 
knowing,  and  willing,  67 ;  of 
receptive,  reflective,  and  execu- 
tive powers,  68 ;  between  the  In- 


296 


FROBBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  LAWS. 


dividual  and  the  race,  70;  be- 
tween Nature  and  God,  71 ;  types 
of,  73 ;  praotioally  wrought  out  in 
FroebePs  kindergarten  work,  77 ; 
social,  educational,  and  religious, 
80 ;  value  of  law  of,  to  teachers,  81. 
Universities,  fundamental  change 
in  aim  of  work,  60 ;  should  con- 
sider physical  development  in 
granting  degrees,  181. 

Weiss,  Prof.,  lectures  at  Berlin,  62. 
Wiese,  Dr.,  on  health  of  English 
boys,  148. 


Women  as  teachers,  28. 

Wonder  power  should  be  developed 

not  destroyed,  109. 
Wordsworth  and  Froebel,  alike  in 

reverent  recognition  of  God  in 

Nature,  86, 182, 195,  205. 
Work  should  never  degenerate  into 

drudgery,  118, 172. 

Ziller  on  the  true  centre  La  correla- 
tion, 211. 

Zoology,  mistake  in  teaching  too 
soon,  57. 


It  iis 


KS 


.  U 


THE  END. 


developed 

1,  alike  in 
if  God  in 

lerate  into 


iA  correla- 
iching  too 

(16) 


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64.  Tkm  MdmetMowuA  TouBdAtloiia  of  Trade  sad  Industry.    By  Fabian 
Wau.    $ljniiet  '       ' 

85.  Oenetle  Psyehology  fw  Teaehers.     By  Charlm  H.  Judd,  rh.D. 
$1  JO  net 

8§.  The  Bvolation  of  the  Blementary  Sehools  of  Great  Britain.    By 
JAmBCGauMonaH,  A.M.,  LL.1X  |l.Mnet. 

•T.  Thomaa  Platter  and  the  Edueattonal  Renalsaanee  of  the  Six- 
teenth Century,    By  Paul  MONBOi.   ILfOnet. 

081  Bdneatlonal   laanea  In  the  Kindergarten.     By  Susan  B.  BU)ir. 
$L60iiet. 

OTBBB  TOLUmM  IN  PBNPABATION. 


D.  APPUrrON  AND  OOMPAinr,  NBW  TOBK. 


L.  E.  Bko 

UHBBIOK  £. 

$i.6a 

Jaxbb  H. 
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